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The raid may have to do with a complaint by a whistleblower to National Treasury that municipal manager, Masala Makumule, flouted tender procedures on projects worth R61.1 million.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The Hawks have finally landed in Limpopo’s Thulamela Local Municipality following months of allegations about tender graft in the region of R61.1 million.  

Limpopo Hawks spokesperson, Warrant Officer Lethunya Mmuroa, however did not elaborate or give details about the search and seizure of electronic devices in the municipal offices in Thohoyandou on September 3.

“The electronic devices [are] believed to be necessary for investigation of alleged fraud and corruption … During operation, the team presented search warrants to the affected municipal  employees,” Mmuroa said.

The People’s Eye however understands that this raid may be related to allegations raised by an unknown whistleblower late last year.

According to the whistleblower things went haywire in Thulamela municipality after National Treasury allocated the R61.1 million in August 2022 for a neighbourhood development programme that included landscaping, road rehabilitation and repair of the water drainage system.

Thulamela manager, Masala Makumule, allegedly avoided an open bid tender process  and decided to go the route of selecting companies from the municipality’s database, even though the tender amounts were above the threshold determined by the Municipal Finance Management Act to be processed via a closed bid.

This angered other interested companies who then complained on social media and also lodged a complaint with National Treasury.

Makumule also allegedly excluded the supply chain management officials from participating in the appointment of the companies.

National Treasury wrote to Makumule on August 2, indicating that they received the complaint on June 19 from an “anonymous service provider”.

According to the letter, National Treasury received an email response from the municipality on July 24 2023, in which it indicated that the municipality had not received any formal complaint and, therefore, felt no need to respond to allegations from “faceless complaint on social media platforms”.

National Treasury indicated that it had received a formal complaint on the matter and urged the municipality to take the allegations seriously. The letter reads: 

“It must be noted that the complaint has also been sent to the municipality and the presidency hotline.”

The People’s Eye has seen a document in which Makumule asks a technical services director to “allocate” tenders to two companies in relation to damaged roads in the same he has appointed two other companies previously.

The six damaged roads projects worth R27.9 million were allocated to companies through selecting them on the municipality’s database, which is allowed if it is an emergency.

However, such deviation does not mean the supply chain management unit officials and the CFO who heads the unit should be excluded from requesting three quotations and appointing a suitable company.