The Hawks. Picture: Bloemfontein Courant.
The Hawks are hot on the heels of more senior government officials fingered in corruption scandals, describing the potential number of upcoming arrests as “too much”, while a political analyst believes ANC top member Ace Magashule could soon be implicated.
The Hawks had on Thursday arrested two senior officials for allegations of corruption. The first was the arrest of former ANC MP and parliamentary committee chairperson Vincent Smith, who handed himself over to the Alberton police, where he was charged with corruption and fraud for his dealings with Bosasa.
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Shortly afterward in KwaZulu Natal, a seventh suspect also handed himself over for his involvement in the R255 million irregular Free State asbestos audit project which has been in the spotlight at the Commission for Inquiry in State Capture in recent weeks. Several other officials were arrested in connection with this case on Wednesday, and will all appear in court on Friday.
The Hawks’ spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi says these arrest, however, are just the beginning, and they are expecting to pounce on many more government officials.
He said the arrests were not sparked by testimonies before the state capture commission but had been under investigation for a long time. The commission had previously requested arrests to be placed on hold though, until the matters were heard in the inquiry, said Mulaudzi.
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“The asbestos saga – we started it in February this year. Including Vincent Smith’s [case] which we started investigating from 2018. These arrests were inevitable. We knew the commission would be dealing with these matters and informed them we are ready to arrest, but they requested us to hold on because they want to deal with it before the commission first.”
“We agreed to give them space to do their job and once they are finished, we will pounce.
“Too much arrests should be coming up… Our arrests do not come from the happenings of the commission,” he said.
The seven suspects linked to the Free State asbestos saga include former mayor of Manguang Metro Municipality Olly Mlamleli. Her alleged arrest came after that of businessman Edwin Sodi who was involved in the asbestos looting scandal, former head of the department of human settlements in the Free State, Nthimose Mokhesi and Thabane Zulu, former director-general of the national department of human settlements.
But according to political analyst Somadoda Fikeni, politicians such as Ace Magashule and Nomvula Mokonyane should also be worried as law enforcement seemed to be “going up the [political] profiles”.
He said while the scandals in the Free State were unravelling, they could in turn directly or indirectly implicate ANC secretary general Magashule.
“Ace Magashule will experience challenges. There is no way that with the Vrede Dairy farm, and so much happening in the Free State, that he would not be affected. We can discuss whether he will be directly or indirectly implicated – but that he would be implicated is going to happen,” said Fikeni.
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