The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says the seventh suspect – linked to the multi-million Rand Free State Asbestos saga has made contact with law enforcement authorities.
On Wednesday, the Hawks arrested six suspects in the Free State and Gauteng. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says it has been probing the R255 million contract awarded to a company by the Free State government in 2014 for the eradication of asbestos roofs on houses.
NPA spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema says future arrests could include politicians, “Last night, he made contact with the investigating team, I think we will get reports this morning on how far they went. We are hoping they will all appear on Friday at the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court. It is the former DG of Human Settlements Department. There are going to be a lot of law enforcement activities taking place in the next few days. The Hawks will be rounding up after yesterday’s search and seizure. There are a number of things that have to be done from a law enforcement point of view which doesn’t rule out people being arrested and appearing in court over the next few days.”
Hawks make arrests:
The SIU’s Kaizer Kganyago say they have solid evidence against the accused.
“The SIU started investigating this matter sometime in 2019 and then we were working under proclamation 39 of 2019 which gave us powers to investigate this matter. While we were doing that we saw a lot of criminality and we roped in the Hawks immediately so that we started working together and we then came to this point where we are in the same operation where they are the ones arresting because we don’t have arresting powers and we are now supporting them with the evidence we have got out of that investigation.”
Kganyago says their investigations into the matter are still ongoing and more arrests are on the cards.
