The head of the Investigative Directorate, which falls under the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), says COVID-19 is complicating their investigations even more.
Hermione Cronje says some of the suspects are dying due to the virus.
Cronje says a suspect involved in the awarding of a major Kusile contract has passed away.
“One of the suspects we wanted to arrest and bring to court passed away a week ago of COVID-19. Two weeks prior to that, our investigators, two of them were in hospital due to COVID-19,” says Cronje.
The head of the Hawks, Godfrey Lebeya, says his already thinly-stretched unit is being crippled by the COVID-19 virus. Various law enforcement agencies appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts to brief Members of Parliament on the progress of investigations into their corruption-related cases.
The Hawks also have a more than 50% vacancy rate. Lebeya says the COVID-19 pandemic makes matters worse.
“The reason why deputy-head is not here, she is recovering from COVID-19 and also preparing the funeral of her husband for Sunday, based on COVID-19 related death. Due to COVID-19, we have lost ten of our members.”
Latest COVID-19 stats in SA
South Africa has recorded 15 501 new COVID-19 cases, taking the accumulative infections to 2 090 909.
Gauteng again recorded the majority of cases with 9 215.
Total recoveries in South Africa now stand at 1 845 038.
457 people have succumbed to COVID-19-related complications according to the latest report from the NICD, taking the death toll associated with the pandemic to 62 628.
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