Johannesburg - The Limpopo government has admitted that Transport MEC Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana acted unlawfully by personally awarding a tender to a company.
“When you are new in a department and you’re determined to work very hard, you’re bound to make mistakes,” provincial government spokesman Phuti Seloba said on Sunday.
On Sunday, the police’s priority crime unit, the Hawks, confirmed that a case of fraud had been opened against the MEC and the department’s head, Hanli du Plessis, by EFF MPL Jossey Buthane at the Polokwane police station on Wednesday.
The Hawks national spokesman, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, said they were probing the matter.
The appointment of MPA Investigators was also slammed by National Treasury as irregular. Its chief procurement officer, Kenneth Brown, wrote a letter instructing the head of the provincial treasury, Gavin Pratt, to immediately terminate the unlawful contract.
MPA director Antonio Martins could not be reached for comment.
A source said some of the officials had been suspended for allegedly tipping off their preferred bidders about specifications of tenders.
The Star