The Hawks’ investigation into alleged fraud at the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality has intensified, resulting in the arrest of two additional suspects—a 38-year-old service provider and a 48-year-old former technical director of the municipality.
Limpopo’s Provincial Hawks head, Major General Advocate Gopz Govender, confirmed that the pair was apprehended in Gauteng on Wednesday afternoon.
Nabbed over decade-old dodgy contract
The arrests form part of an ongoing probe into irregularities surrounding a 2015 contract linked to the restoration of a major power outage in Ba-Phalaborwa.
Their arrests come less than 24 hours after a 58-year-old senior official from the Maruleng municipality—who previously served as acting municipal manager of Ba-Phalaborwa—was detained for his alleged role in the same case.
According to the Hawks, the suspect, while serving as acting municipal manager in July 2015, unlawfully appointed a company to assist with restoring power in the municipality without following any proper procurement procedures. The company subsequently submitted multiple claims and received over R770,000 in payments despite allegedly providing no services.
Govender commended the swift progress made by investigators and reiterated the Hawks’ commitment to tackling corruption within municipal structures.
“This is a clear demonstration of our dedication to rooting out corruption wherever it manifests. The investigation is ongoing, and further arrests cannot be ruled out,” he said.
Party welcomes arrests
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo has welcomed the arrests. DA Member of the Provincial Legislature and Olifants Constituency Head Marie Helm praised the Hawks for their “job well done” but criticised the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality for attempting to distance itself from the matter.
In a statement, Helm said it was “deeply disingenuous” for the municipality to claim that no officials had been arrested, noting that the alleged crime was committed by its own acting municipal manager at the time.
“This is yet another example of how organs of state under ANC control twist the truth, hide the crime, and offer spin instead of transparency, accountability, and basic honesty,” Helm charged.
She further slammed the ANC’s practice of redeploying implicated officials to other government entities, warning that such actions perpetuate corruption and erode public trust.
“This is not how a capable, ethical, and functional state is built,” she added.
