Johannesburg,South Africa

Former African National Congress(ANC) spokesperson Pule Mabe and his seven accomplices arrested for R27 million tender corruption after handing themselves to Hawks on Wednesday morning.

Mabe and his corrupt buddies are expected to appear at the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes court once they have been processed.

According to Hawks,their arrest follows a forensic report by the Specialised Investigating Unit(SIU) which discovered that in October 2016 the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a tender requesting proposals to integrate and formalise waste operatives and waste into the mainstream waste management economy.A tender of around R27 million was then awarded to Enviro-Mobi in March 2017.

The probe on awarding of the tender to Enviro-Mobi by Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Environment discovered that senior managers in the department paid millions of Rands to Mabe's company without delivering the service as written on tender agreement.

"The contract agreement between the Department and Enviro-Mobi stipulated that the Department may consider to pay on condition that 50% of the work has been completed and no upfront payments may be made to the service provider.

During investigation it was established that the Chief Director and Chief Financial Director processed and paid over R25 million to Enviro-Mobi for 200 motorised three wheelers,though all goods were still in the possession of the service provider,"said Hawks statement.

The investigation also uncovered that Enviro-Mobi demanded another millions of Rands from the Department and the investigators also revealed that the company kept it as secret that had an intimate relationship Pule Mabe.

"It was also discovered that the service provider later issued a letter of demand to the Department demanding a further payment of over R9 million for safe keeping,storage and ancillary services relating to the fleet.Also that the company failed to disclose in its bid proposal,its affiliation to the politician who was a member of Parliament(MP) and misrepresented to the Department that it had supplied the fleet as well as related services,"continued Hawks.

The case against Enviro-Mobi was opened at the Johannesburg Central Police Station in October 2020 which prompted investigation by the Hawks.

Hawks added that the suspects will be charge with fraud,theft,contravention of PFMA and Prevention of Organized Crime Act(POCA).