Sopa: Makhura sends stern warning to those implicated in PPE corruption

Gauteng Premier David Makhura has sounded a stern warning to those implicated in the province’s PPE corruption scandals during his state of the province address on Tuesday.

Makhura said corruption allegations and irregularities pertaining to Covid-19 procurement and delays in the delivery of some health infrastructure revealed substantial governance weaknesses.

He said that the irregular and corrupt practices exposed by the Auditor-General (AG) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) constitute a serious dent in the progress made in the past five years on clean governance and integrity.

“We must and we will set an example with all those involved in malfeasance, both in the public and private sector. They must be brought to book and all monies recovered by the state,” said Makhura.

Makhura also raised concerns about the financial position of municipalities during Covid-19 due to the loss of over R8.75 billion in revenue from April to July 2020 for municipalities.

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He said that these losses had negative implications for service delivery and affected the resilience of municipalities.

“This resulted in a decline in spending on capex projects by 42% and a decline in cash collection due to suspended credit control measures. Several municipalities struggled to pay their creditors such as Eskom and Rand Water.”

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