Alleged procurement irregularities amounting to R15-million at the national Department of Transport (DoT) communications unit have been laid bare in a protected disclosure sent to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa, among others.
The explosive details are contained in the disclosure in which a senior employee of the department says his refusal to participate in the alleged corruption put a mark on his head for victimisation.
The complaint places unit boss Collen Msibi at the centre of the alleged procurement irregularities.
It also reveals that the elaborate scheme to fleece the department’s communications unit included three service providers billing taxpayers for work that could have been done internally.
The scheme was apparently entrenched through keeping invoices below the R1m threshold to avoid scrutiny.
After the original disclosure, filed in May, and the Office of the Auditor-General’s findings on the financial state of the DoT, an update last week provided new figures.
Having originally predicted that the questionable payments amounted to R9m, the complainant updated the complaint with the AG findings, saying the figure was now standing at R15m, which could change.
According to the complaint, among the services the flagged companies performed were live-streaming events where minister Barbara Creecy would be making public appearances.
It is said that in some cases the cost of the service provided was higher than that of the event, with the streaming yielding as few as 100 views.
The complainant says their conscience would not allow them to sign off on some of these because they did not make sense.
“The department was procuring paid media coverage for routine operational activities, including pothole repair ceremonies. For example, I would express to the communications unit colleagues that a single pothole repair operation might cost less than R100 000 to execute. Yet media buying to promote the same event was being procured at costs exceeding R600 000 or even more,” the complainant writes.
“The minister had not authorised this or asked for it. I could not in good conscience approve it. I said so formally and on the record in multiple conversations with my colleagues; I bemoaned this relentlessly.”
Contracts were seemingly rotated among the three service providers identified in the complainant’s disclosures. The said entities are reportedly owned by the same persons.
The complainant says the AG established that seven separate requests for quotation for live streaming services totalling R6 795 050 were issued, each structured below the R1 000 000 quotation threshold.
“On the general ledger, expenditure to those suppliers was R5 964 174.40 in 2025/26 and R7 311 600.00 in the prior financial year, amounting to R13 275 774.40 over the two cycles.
“It is important to note that this figure excludes the financial year before that two-year window in which these three entities first began operating within the department.”
According to the complainant, his cries have hit a brick wall internally, for the most part, since 2024.
It was only after the AG and the Hawks entered the fray that the DoT instituted a forensic investigation into the allegations.
The complainant has since met the forensic investigators to provide them with a detailed explanation of what happened.
“The department has commissioned an external forensic investigation into the procurement arrangements identified in my disclosures and has appointed the law firm Bowmans, doing so only after it learnt of the involvement of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and after my disclosure, of which I had already made the department’s management aware.”
The complainant is adamant that what they believe to be irregular expenditure “incurred in 2025/26 would have been prevented entirely had the department acted on my reports of May and June 2025”.
“In those reports, I set out the mo-tive behind Mr Msibi’s conduct, directly linking it to the procurement arrangement I had opposed, refused to participate in, and challenged as excessively expensive. This he called and considered insubordination.”
Msibi declined to comment on the allegations levelled against him, citing a conflict of interest. He referred Sunday World’s enquiries to Advocate Adam Masombuka, a DDG in the department, who simply said he can “confirm that there is that audit query and it is under investigation”.
- A protected disclosure revealed alleged procurement irregularities amounting to R15 million at the Department of Transport's communications unit, implicating unit boss Collen Msibi.
- The scheme involved three service providers billing for work that could have been done internally, with invoices kept below the R1 million threshold to avoid scrutiny.
- Services included live-streaming events, such as those featuring Minister Barbara Creecy, with some streaming costs exceeding the event's value and low viewership.
- The complainant reported being victimised for refusing to participate and challenged high costs, such as media coverage for routine activities costing over R600,000.
- A forensic investigation was launched only after the Auditor-General and Hawks became involved, with ongoing inquiries into the procurement irregularities.
Alleged procurement irregularities amounting to R15-million at the national Department of Transport (DoT) communications unit have been laid bare in a protected disclosure sent to the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa, among others.
It also reveals that the elaborate scheme to fleece the department’s communications unit included three service providers billing taxpayers for work that could have been done internally.
After the original disclosure, filed in May, and the Office of the Auditor-General’s findings on the financial state of the DoT, an update last week provided new figures.
It is said that in some cases the cost of the service provided was higher than that of the event, with the streaming yielding as few as 100 views.
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Contracts were seemingly rotated among the three service providers identified in the complainant’s disclosures.
“On the general ledger, expenditure to those suppliers was R5 964 174.40 in 2025/26 and R7 311 600.00 in the prior financial year, amounting to R13 275 774.40 over the two cycles.
“It is important to note that this figure excludes the financial year before that two-year window in which these three entities first began operating within the department.”
It was only after the AG and the Hawks entered the fray that the DoT instituted a forensic investigation into the allegations.
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“In those reports, I set out the mo-tive behind Mr Msibi’s conduct, directly linking it to the procurement arrangement I had opposed, refused to participate in, and challenged as excessively expensive.
Msibi declined to comment on the allegations levelled against him, citing a conflict of interest. He referred
