The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) says it warned the Gauteng government about the possible dangers of storing COVID-19 personal protective equipment at the AngloGold Ashanti hospital in Carltonville, west of Johannesburg.
It says the building was not protected despite equipment worth millions of rand being stored inside.
On Thursday, fire destroyed a storeroom in which PPE worth R23 million was kept.
SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago says the fire could have been avoided had the provincial government listened.
“On November 9, we wrote to the Department of Health and we also wrote to the Department of Infrastructure Gauteng to warn them about the dangers of the loss that might happen because of the safety to the place and the mere fact that there were no people guarding the place. They’ve got a lot of equipment there and ultimately the fire happened two months after we warned them,” explains Kganyago.
On Friday, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) pleaded with state officials to stop looting public funds. This follows the release of a progress report on PPE corruption.
The unit revealed that it’s investigating contracts worth over R13 billion.
In the report, the SIU also found that there was political pressure in the procurement of PPE.
It has so far made 38 referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for criminal prosecution.
SIU appalled by level of PPE corruption as 25 government officials face probe:
Meanwhile, among those implicated is President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko.
