Hawks raid Collins Chabane local municipality offices

It doesn’t rain but pours for the Collins Chabane local municipality in Limpopo after the Hawks raided the institution at the weekend following allegations of corruption involving more than R180 million.

Hardly a month after the municipality’s former manager, Tsakane Charlotte Ngobeni, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in connection with the R2 billion VBS Mutual Bank looting, the Hawks seized vital tender documents and laptops from the municipality amid allegations of another corruption scandal.

The municipality allegedly awarded a tender worth R173 million to companies without following due supply chain management processes.

The tender, according to the Hawks, was for the construction of municipal offices in the Malamulele.

“We have conducted a search and seizure operation as part of the ongoing investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption,” said Hawks Limpopo spokesman Captain Matimba Maluleke yesterday.

“No arrests were made but our investigations are continuing.”

A well-placed source from the municipality told The Citizen the tender was awarded to a joint venture which started fighting over the budget. This, he said, was after an engineer, assigned by the municipality, found the ground on which they were building a three-storey flat contained clay deposits.

“The service provider then wanted to bill the institution R11 million more to make a total R184 million.

“One service provider went to the Hawks and reported that the awarding of the tender was dubious,” said the source.

Municipality spokesman Risenga Shilenge confirmed the raid.

“We have decided to cooperate with the Hawks in an effort to make their work easier,” he said.

– news@citizen.co.za