An amount of R70 million is involved in the case for which former education head of department Benny Boshielo (51) and senior education officer at the department, Annemarie Gordan, were arrested by the Hawks on Tuesday.
Hawks spokesperson, Capt Paul Ramaloko, said the pair appeared before the Polokwane magistrate’s court shortly after their arrest on Tuesday, in connection with fraud relating to a contract for the supply of mobile classrooms.
Ramaloko, said an additional accused, aged 50 years and also a former employee of the department, would be arrested soon and added to the accused list. He said the third suspect currently resided in Durban and had failed to hand herself over to the Hawks at the Polokwane police station as arranged.
The fraud charge they faced related to the alleged fraudulent extension of a contract for the supply of mobile classrooms to a substantial number of schools in Limpopo, Ramaloko explained. He said an additional payment of just under R70 million was subsequently allegedly paid to the service provider for the extended period as a result of the alleged fraudulent activity.
He said the arrests came after a two-year long investigation by the Hawks’ anti corruption task team as well as as a result of the Section 100 administration intervention by national government.
National head of the Hawks, Lt Genl Anwa Dramat said:
“We will continue with our quest to investigate for the purpose of identifying those who are associated with criminal activities. This is part of the national government intervention in Limpopo.”
The case was postponed to November 4 for the disclosure of the docket. Boshielo was released on bail of R5 000 and Gordan’s bail was set at R1 000.
State prosecutor Meg Allie said that although the charge was serious, they were not regarded as flight risks and promised not to interfere with witnesses.
