The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) announced late Thursday evening that it had successfully seized luxury homes, vehicles, and other assets linked to syndicates accused of looting Tembisa Hospital. But hours after the announcement, questions remain: where are the pictures?
In past high-profile seizures, the AFU has paraded evidence before the media—rows of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, and mansions splashed across front pages. The prosecutions of Edwin Sodi and Hamilton Ndlovu, for example, were accompanied by widely circulated footage of vehicles being towed away. Yet this time, despite claims that assets worth more than R326 million belonging to businessman Hangwani Maumela and his associates have been restrained, no such visuals have been provided.
African Times pressed NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane for comment on Friday morning, but at the time of publication, no response had been received.
The Missing Images
The AFU’s Thursday night statement spoke of four Lamborghinis, a Bentley, and even a luxury boat seized from Maumela’s syndicate. Yet South Africans awoke to silence—no photographs, no footage, no proof. On social media, skepticism spread quickly.
“Some kind of justice is being delivered here by the AFU. But until these guys, and their political benefactors, are in jail, the wheel hasn’t turned the whole way round,” wrote one user on X. Another quipped: “Nothing will happen… a state enquiry that will last 70 years.”
The lack of transparency has fuelled suspicion that politically connected figures are being shielded from the public spotlight.
Who Is Hangwani Maumela?
Maumela is no stranger to controversy. He is a well-known tenderpreneur born in Limpopo. He has long been linked to contracts at Tembisa Hospital, which became the epicentre of procurement corruption after the murder of whistleblower Babita Deokaran in August 2021.
Deokaran, then Chief Director of Financial Accounting at the Gauteng Department of Health, flagged hundreds of suspicious payments at the hospital shortly before she was assassinated outside her Johannesburg home. Her death has become a chilling symbol of the cost of speaking out against corruption.
News24 recently reported that Maumela enjoyed connections to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s family circle. He is reportedly related to the President through marriage, a detail that has compounded public unease. While there is no evidence directly linking Ramaphosa himself to the Tembisa contracts, the association casts a long shadow over government credibility in tackling graft.
The Tembisa Hospital Scandal
According to forensic audits, Maumela’s syndicate pocketed more than R400 million in irregular contracts at Tembisa Hospital between 2016 and 2022. A second syndicate, allegedly led by businessman Mazibuko, raked in an additional R300 million.
Investigators found that cover quotes were used to rig procurement processes, while money meant for basic medical supplies was instead diverted to fund lavish lifestyles—luxury homes, imported cars, and extravagant parties. In many cases, companies that were listed as bidders denied ever submitting tenders.
The National Treasury’s Special Audit Services confirmed Babita Deokaran’s suspicions: that Tembisa Hospital was not just a public facility but a feeding trough for politically connected networks.
Babita Deokaran’s Shadow
Every time new revelations surface about Tembisa Hospital corruption, the name of Babita Deokaran resurfaces. She paid with her life for flagging payments she described as “too suspicious to ignore.”
Her family has repeatedly called for accountability not only for her killers—several hitmen are now serving time—but also for the masterminds who allegedly ordered her assassination. “She died for trying to stop corruption. Yet those who benefited from it still live freely,” her brother told journalists earlier this year.
The link between Deokaran’s warnings and the current AFU actions is undeniable. The assets being seized now represent the very wealth she tried to expose before she was silenced.
Transparency on Trial
For the AFU, Thursday’s announcement could have been a moment of triumph, proof that corruption has consequences. Instead, the absence of images or details has left the public questioning whether the state is serious—or merely issuing press releases without substance.
Advocate Ouma Rabaji-Rasethaba, head of the AFU, stressed in her statement that ordinary South Africans are the victims: “When there is no water, when there is no electricity, no textbooks, no medication, no hospitals, we are all suffering. Denying South Africans health care including medication in hospitals is a travesty of justice.”
Strong words. But words are not enough. South Africans want to see the promised assets. They want to know that those who stole from hospitals are not quietly cutting deals behind closed doors.
What Next?
The AFU has promised that assets worth billions are now under restraint, but restraint orders are not convictions. Unless prosecutions follow, syndicates can challenge the seizures in court and even reclaim property. Without visible accountability, the seizures risk being dismissed as smoke and mirrors.
The silence around Hangwani Maumela—no pictures, no court appearances, no images of his cars or mansions being hauled away—only fuels suspicion that political ties are insulating him from public shame.
The Tembisa Hospital saga sits at the intersection of corruption, politics, and justice. It is also a test case for the NPA’s credibility. For now, the public is left with a statement issued just before nightfall, unaccompanied by the kind of evidence that once made front-page headlines.
Until South Africans see the Lamborghinis on tow trucks and the mansions sealed off, the question will remain: where are the pictures?
