The Limpopo government-owned bus company, Great North Transport (GNT), has placed its top executives, CEO Matata Mokoele, CFO Hlongwane and COO Reason Mkhatswa on precautionary suspension for three (3) months. According to the embattled public transport entity spokesperson Mthunzi Dlamini, the trio were suspended following serious concerns related to financial governance, operational delivery and executive accountability. “The Board of Directors of Great North Transport (SOC) Ltd (“GNT”) wishes to confirm that, at its Special Board Meeting held on 29 May…

Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo has been placed on an immediate special leave. This was revealed by Deputy Minister of Transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa today, May 27, 2025 during an update on the investigation by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) into the RAF. He was briefing Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). Hlengwa said he received reports about the leaked preliminary SIU report which implicated Letsoalo in likely wrongdoing in a R79 million lease for the fund’s Johannesburg…

The Special Tribunal has set aside a R257 million Microsoft tender that was unlawfully awarded to Softwareone Experts South Africa (Pty) Ltd (SoftwareOne) by the Department of Defence in 2018. The ruling follows an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which found that the Department procured Microsoft licences from SoftwareOne, valued at over R257 million, without following a competitive bidding process. The procurement process was found to have violated all applicable laws, as no budgetary provision had been made…

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been given the presidential nod to go ahead and probe the Department of Defence’s personal protection equipment (PPE) tender. The nod was given by President Cyril Ramaphosa in Proclamation 260 of 2025, which authorises the SIU to investigate serious maladministration, focusing on irregularities linked to the tender to supply surgical mask elastic loops. The SIU probe will examine whether the procurement and contracting were made in a manner that was not fair, competitive, transparent,…

The feared Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been authorised to probe the ANC-run Bushbuckridge local municipality in Mpumalanga province. In a proclamation signed off by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the SIU said it will look into serious maladministration and unlawful conduct within the financially struggling municipality. This investigation will primarily focus on the procurement and contracting for the Lillydale Phase 1 project, specifically Contract No. BLM R119, MIG/MP/1710/RST/18/19, which entailed the paving of internal streets in the municipality. The SIU aims…

The Special Tribunal has set aside a tender awarded by the Free State Department of Health to a little-known medical company, Buthelezi EMS, without a contract. The tender for inter-facility emergency medical services was declared unlawful, unprocedural and unconstitutional, with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) authorised to recover monies paid out by officials. According to an SIU statement, the unit instituted civil proceedings to review and set aside the irregular tenders awarded to Buthelezi EMS and subsequent contracts to sister…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe allegations of maladministration, irregular expenditure, and corruption in connection with several tenders awarded by the Mbombela Municipality in Mpumalanga. The unit is set to investigate seven tenders, which include legal services, engineering projects, low-cost housing under the RDP, water infrastructure, and energy efficiency initiatives which are believed to have been awarded without following due process or to have not given taxpayers value for money. The SIU will asses…

Mphaphuli Consulting’s efforts to prevent the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) from recovering R76 million from a Limpopo municipality overpaid for electricity services have been dealt a severe blow.   The Constitutional Court has refused the engineering company direct access to apply for the reviewing and setting aside of the SIU report, which found Mphaphuli Consulting had overcharged the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality when it electrified Sekhukhune villages in 2013 as part of a transversal contract. The Apex Court’s ruling essentially prevents…

African National Congress (ANC) Limpopo spokesperson Jimmy Machaka has taken Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) Dr David “Che” Selane to task over his claims that party members were a bunch of academic fraudsters. Machaka says the former provincial ANC Youth League secretary’s (ANCYL) claims were not only damaging to the governing party’s reputation, but also “reckless, malicious, baseless”. This is the latest salvo in a longstanding political rivalry and bad blood between Machaka and Selane dating back to their stints…

A few days after President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe two dubious tenders awarded by the Kokstad Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, another whistleblower has made damning allegations of corruption against the same entity. The whistleblower alleges that the municipality bought a farm known as Waaifontein to build RDP houses for the needy, but the farm allegedly ended up housing cattle belonging to a top ANC leader in the province. African Times has decided to withhold…