Hawks swoop on Thulamela Municipality, but who will be next?

The early-morning raid on the offices of the Thulamela Municipality on Tuesday must have sent shivers down the spines of many officials at municipalities in Vhembe, and perhaps even some politicians.

A team from the Hawks, supported by members of the Tactical Response Team (TRT), swooped in on the municipality and briefly detained at least 10 senior managers. Several electronic devices were seized. A spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said the information on the devices might assist them in their investigation into alleged fraud and corruption.

The provincial head of the Hawks in Limpopo, Maj-Gen Gopz Govender, said the operation had been launched to remove all corrupt members from the government and private sectors. “The Hawks’ operations are still ongoing within Limpopo Province,” he added.

His words are sure to unsettle many of the district’s senior managers and officials. Thulamela is generally considered one of the better municipalities in terms of financial discipline and control. (See story about the AG reports on page 8). The municipality has not achieved clean audits, but for the past five years, it has boasted an unqualified AG report, with some findings. The 2022/23 financial year showed an increase in irregular expenditure, but no unauthorised expenditure was recorded.

This is in stark contrast to municipalities such as Vhembe and Musina, where unauthorised expenditure in certain years ran into billions. In 2022/23, for example, Musina recorded R52.6 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

But on Tuesday, the focus was on Thulamela Municipality. According to one of the municipality's employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Hawks were accompanied by heavily armed officers from the TRT. They stormed into the municipal boardroom where the senior managers were holding a meeting. Several of the top officials were escorted to a minibus taxi, where they were detained for several hours. The Hawks then ransacked their offices, confiscating files, cell phones, and laptops.

Some of the affected municipal employees who were briefly detained were Mr Masala Makumule (municipal manager), Mr Colbert Mufamadi (chief financial officer), Masingita Chauke (graveling manager), Mr Mbulungeni Madi (acting communication services manager), Tevhe Nepfumbada (disaster services manager), Rendani Mulaudzi (technical support manager), and Tsumbedzo Mudzili.

"They blocked all entrances to and from the municipality during their operation,” the source said. This also caused significant inconvenience to private companies renting space in the complex. “There are offices of car rental companies like Avis and Budget, and customers returning rented cars had to wait outside until the operation was over,” said the source.

Political parties in the Vhembe District welcomed the Hawks’ intervention to curb corruption within municipalities.

The regional chairperson of the EFF, advocate TP Matodzi, said all corrupt officials and office bearers should be arrested and prosecuted “so that we can have a corruption-free government”. He added that corrupt activities hinder service delivery. “We have been speaking out against corrupt activities, but we were not taken seriously. This is why there is no service delivery within our municipality,” he said.

Efforts to get a comment from the municipality’s spokesperson, Mr Nndwamato Tshiila, were initially unsuccessful. On Wednesday morning, he responded, saying he was unfortunately not up to speed with what had been happening at the municipality. He promised to try and find out.

Later on Wednesday morning, the mayor, Sara Rambuda, made a brief statement, saying the municipality respected the rule of law. “There is not much I can say except to mention that we should allow the law to take its course,” she said.

The International Revelation Congress’s representative in the municipality, Cllr Khakhathi Tshisikule, welcomed the Hawks’ investigation. “We believe the Hawks have a watertight case, and people will be arrested and prosecuted,” he said.

Date:06 September 2024

By: Victor Mukwevho

Victor Mukwevho Ne-vumbani joined the Mirror during it's inception in 1990. He joined the SABC newsroom in 1995, and was known by  listeners as "A u fhedzisela ari". He was a news editor for The Tembisan Newspaper from 2007 to 2015. He rejoined the Limpopo Mirror newspaper in June 2022 as a freelance journalist.

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