Cape Town – The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said that more than 700 companies were now being probed for tender irregularities linked to personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts for the R500-billion Covid-19 relief scheme.
These contracts amount to over R7.5-billion.
In Gauteng, the SIU is investigating more than 160 companies.
Among those implicated is presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko’s husband and Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “We’ve received a lot of allegations. We’re not saying that all of that was illegally done but this is the veil we are looking at the present moment and that shows signs that things are really not the way they are supposed to be.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that the money stolen from this fund will be recovered.
Kganyago said that most municipalities were cooperating, except for two Western Cape municipalities.
“We had resistance also from the Matzikama Municipality where we also did a search and seizure and because of that investigation we were following up on some of the suppliers – there were three suppliers – that were part of the investigation at Matzikama,” explained Kganyago.
