At least 13 people, including a former ANC mayor, former and current senior municipal officials and business people in Limpopo were arrested by the Hawks on Monday morning for corruption and fraud relating to tender irregularities.
The Hawks pounced on the suspects during a raid at various locations in Mokopane in the Mogalakwena local municipality relating to more than R15m tenders.
Hawks spokesperson Capt Matimba Maluleke said they have arrested five company directors, a senior official, six former senior officials including the former mayor.
“We also arrested the wife of one of the former senior officials. The suspects are accused of receiving gratification from service providers who were contracted by the municipality. In some instances, service providers were paid without doing any work,” said Maluleke.
“We also seized a BMW sedan which we believe was bought with corrupt money.”
Some of the suspects, including the former mayor, were arrested at the municipal building after they were summoned by the elite crime-busting unit.
Due to the high number of detainees, the Hawks had to use an unmarked minibus to ferry the suspects to Mokopane police station were they will be formally charged.
Maluleke added: “We received lots of complaints about the allegations of corruption in the Mogalakwena local municipality that have been happening since 2017. We didn't take those allegations lightly and we started our investigations, hence we are effecting arrests today,” he said.
He said the suspects will appear in the Mokopane magistrate's court soon.
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