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A Mpumalanga businessman will be sentenced on Thursday for attempting to bribe a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigator with R50 000 to make a Covid-19 procurement investigation disappear.
The sentencing proceedings in the Mbombela Magistrate’s Court come after Sipho Mapalala entered into a guilty plea with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in January this year, on charges of corruption and bribery.
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This was for attempting to bribe a SIU investigator to make a Covid-19 procurement investigation against a service provider, Gugu Bulungu, go away.
Mapalala, who co-owns the upmarket Zero13 Lifestyle restaurant and club in the suburb of Riverside Park in Mbombela, was arrested in August 2021 during a joint operation with the Hawks when he was delivering the bribe of R50 000 to the SIU investigator.
The attempted bribe followed an SIU investigation into the affairs of the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads, and Transport which uncovered procurement irregularities.
“The SIU investigations revealed that the department contracted a service provider in the 2017/18 financial year for pest control services. However, when the National State of Disaster was declared, the department varied the contract to include disinfection services in the Ehlanzeni District.
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“The disinfection services were for buildings owned and managed by the Mpumalanga provincial government in the said district.
“After the disinfection, the service provider received multiple payments amounting to R4.8 million. The first payment was R1.3 million in July 2020, and was followed by several payments amounting to R3.5 million,” said NPA spokesperson Monica Nyuswa in a statement.
Nyuswa said the SIU investigations also revealed that immediately after the first payment of R1.3 million was made, the service provider started transferring large amounts of money to various entities and individuals.
One of the entities that received money then made various payments which were traced to a Mpumalanga-based law firm and two employees of the provincial government department.
The law firm bought a property to the value of R2.2 million and registered it in the name of the daughter of one of the two departmental officials.
“On 5 August 2021, the SIU interviewed Bulunga, a director of Mbombela Integrated, and Thandolwani Transport and Properties. Bulunga was questioned about payments made to government officials and properties bought for government officials.
“Bulunga denied the allegations. Hours after the interview, Mapalala called an SIU investigator to declare that he is prepared to do anything to make the matter against Bulungu go away.”
In his guilty plea statement, Mapalala admitted that his actions were against the law.
He said he wanted to assist Bulunga to “get out of the mess which caused her severe anxiety and the threat to her life”.
“I knew it was wrong to provide money/payment to the investigator, as she was an official of the SIU and I gave this money to the SIU investigator to compensate the investigator and the ‘other’ people the investigator referred to, to compensate them to crush the involvement of Gugu Bulunga.
“I wanted to help Gugu to get out of the mess which caused her severe anxiety and the threat to her life. I, therefore, admit that I corrupted the investigator and that my actions were unlawful and punishable,” Mapalala wrote in his guilty plea,” read Mapalala’s guilty plea statement.
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