North West MEC for Cooperative Governance Mmoloki Cwaile has expressed his disappointment that a warrant had to be obtained by the Special Investigating Unit to get key documents from the Ratlou Local Municipality in Setlagole.
The unit was granted a warrant by the Atamelang Magistrate’s Court after the unit said it did not get the necessary cooperation from officials in its attempts to access key documents.
The SIU is investigating allegations relating to the awarding of tenders for personal protective equipment worth R25 million.
MEC Cwaile says they have battled to get the municipality to cooperate.
“We have experienced unprecedented arrogance and lack of cooperation on the part of the managers. They cannot refuse access to the information of the state by other state establishments,” says Cwaile.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says they have finally managed to confiscate documents that will assist in the investigation.
“We collected a lot of information and all we want is in the main procurement information and HR information for the officials that we got names of that were involved so that we are able to merge the two. We want to know how these transactions were done. The SCM processes were done to get the contracts given to those people. Who are these people that they gave the contracts to?” says Kganyago.
VIDEO: SIU raids offices of Ratlou Municipality in the North West
