Hawks arrest 20 in Mpumalanga Education fraud bust

At least 20 people suspected of defrauding the Mpumalanga Education Department of millions of rands have been arrested in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Western Cape, in a Hawks’ coordinated operation.

Mpumalanga Hawks head Major-General Nico Gerber says 41 individuals, including companies, allegedly defrauded the provincial Education Department of R113-million.

The fraud relates to the emergency repair of 21 schools during the 2019-2020 financial year.

“Some of these repairs in a very small manner were affected and the pricing and the tenders that were approved, the prices at least, were highly inflated and the service providers were hand-picked. So the supply chain processes were not followed as well. So these contractors then worked with these officials. At this stage, we can just say that the acting HOD at that time, the chief directors for implementation, the director for planning and the acting CFO in the Department of Education are suspects in this matter, and some of them have been arrested already.”

Hawks conduct takedown operation in Mpumalanga:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uHcLDVs4jc