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Hawks probing cases worth R1.5 trillion

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The Hawks says it is currently handling about 22 000 cases of more than half a million charges with a monetary value of more than R1.5 trillion.

The national head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya, says these cases involve approximately 23 000 suspects of which 12 360 have already been secured at court while 11 159 are still pending.

He says of the cases under investigation, close to 2 000 have reached the decision stage.

Lebeya addressed the media in Pretoria on the milestones achieved by the Hawks since his appointment in June 2018.

“Over the period between 2018/2019 and 2021/2022 financial years, the DPCI arrested a total of 12 157 suspects that were brought before the courts of law over these four years. In the same period, a total of 4 447 convictions were secured across the country. Let me hasten to mention that the convictions relate to individuals as the charges/counts are much higher.”

“To cite two examples: in 2019, the convictions relating to Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Component alone was 37 597 counts. In Cape Town Central CAS 1279/10/2016, the two natural persons and five juristic persons were convicted on 487 counts of fraud and money laundering of Value Added Tax (VAT) to the value of R110 million, and R440 million potential loss. The natural persons were on 21 February 2020, sentenced to 17 years and 16 years imprisonment respectively,” adds Lebeya.

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