Cyril’s strategy is risky – expert

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s public instruction to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate and pinpoint any corrupt activities surrounding Covid-19 relief funds might only be to build credibility, but this could come at a cost and impact other investigations, said an expert.

On Thursday last week, Ramaphosa signed a proclamation authorising the SIU to investigate any “unlawful or improper conduct in the procurement of any goods, works and services during or related to the national state of disaster in any state institution”.

In his latest national address, he said his government was increasingly being alerted to allegations of mismanagement and corruption around food parcel relief and inflated prices of personal protective equipment (PPE) and goods required to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

Such investigations will include allegations that the Gauteng health department procured PPE at inflated prices from Madzikane Thandisiwe Diko’s Royal Bhaca Projects.

Diko is married to Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko.

“We have already started and did a secondment with the Gauteng department of health and sent people to investigate,” said

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago. “Now that the proclamation is out, we will … investigate fully. The proclamation gives more power than the secondment.”

Most of the complaints investigated involve the mismanaged distribution of food parcels during the lockdown.

“… we need to report to the president in six weeks to give him an update of where we are.

“We are going to get to the bottom of it. We are now able to do real-time investigations. The positive is that we are able to … deal with issues before any payments are done.

“If we find a contract is irregular, we can stop the money from being paid,” Kganyago said.

But Ramaphosa’s firm hand could be to build credibility as it would be easier to investigate such incidents since they have only occurred recently.

Institute for Security Studies researcher Gareth Newham said his strategy was risky as there was limited capacity in the justice system to investigate, as such probes would be taking time and resources away from state capture investigations.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.