Law enforcement raids homes of tender tycoon Hangwani Maumela and suspended police officer Shadrack Sibiya

A usually sedate street in upmarket Sandton was bustling with activity on Thursday, 9 October when the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) raided the lavish home of controversial businessman Hangwani Maumela.

A convoy of removal trucks was parked in the street while SIU teams entered Maumela’s three-storey mansion and removed his fleet of luxury cars, including three Lamborghinis, each worth several million rands.

SIU spokesperson Ngwako Motsieng said: “The SIU confirms an operation took place at a Sandhurst home linked to our Tembisa Hospital investigation.

“This operation is part of implementing the SIU’s investigation outcomes and consequence management. We will communicate further once the legal processes have been finalised.”

Inside the mansion, investigators conducted a thorough search and spent hours in discussions with Maumela’s legal team.

Daily Maverick understands that an agreement was reached for the furniture and expensive artwork not to be removed on Thursday, but to first be documented by a curator, which would prevent Maumela from selling or transferring ownership of the items.

It is unclear how the discussions concluded, but by late afternoon, dozens of movers closed their trucks and left.

Maumela is reportedly President Cyril Ramaphosa’s nephew from a previous marriage, though Ramaphosa has denied any relationship with him.

Last month, the SIU was granted an order to freeze the assets of Maumela, who was flagged as a leader of one of the syndicates in the Tembisa Hospital scandal, which was first exposed by murdered whistleblower Babita Deokaran.

Read more: SIU reveals staggering scale of Tembisa Hospital’s devastating R2-billion fraud network

A probe by the SIU revealed a sprawling network of corruption, maladministration and procurement fraud at Tembisa Hospital, involving three major syndicates responsible for looting more than R2-billion of public funds.

The interim report on the investigation into corruption at the hospital, recently released by SIU head Andy Mothibi, exposed how colluding officials and service providers exploited and circumvented procurement controls.

The investigation followed the assassination of Deokaran and highlights urgent calls for systemic reform, stronger protections for whistleblowers and stringent accountability measures within the Gauteng Department of Health.

Sibiya raided

Meanwhile, in an unconnected separate search-and-seizure operation on Thursday, the home of suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner Shadrack Sibiya in Centurion was raided as part of an SAPS investigation.

The operation was reportedly connected to Sibiya’s decision to move 121 case dockets from the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT) in KwaZulu-Natal to the police’s national headquarters.

Sibiya has been named in testimony before the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and Parliament’s ad hoc committee into the corruption allegations made by KZN Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (Outa’s) CEO, Wayne Duvenage, welcomed the two raids, which he said told a single story.

“The rot is not confined to one department or one corrupt official. It runs from the procurement systems in many government departments and state entities that enrich undeserved companies and politically connected individuals, to the police structures that are supposed to hold them accountable.

“Until these networks are dismantled and the rule of law is allowed to flow unhindered, leading to prosecutions, South Africa remains trapped in a cycle of exposure without consequence,” said Duvenage.

Wheels of justice turn slowly

The Good party’s secretary-general, Brett Herron, said the raid on Maumela’s home showed that “while the wheels of justice turn slowly, they are turning” and praised the SIU, SAPS and Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department.

“The life of Babita Deokaran was cut short for her role in attempting to expose those behind this looting. It must be honoured through prosecuting not only the businessmen alleged to have been involved, but also those politicians and public servants who allegedly facilitated this horrific corruption scandal.”

He said that public money that was intended to help the sick had been diverted into the pockets of powerful individuals, many of whom had escaped any consequences for their actions.

“Whistleblowers must be protected, and the corrupt, in both private and public sectors, must be jailed,” said Herron. “The faith of our citizens in our justice and security systems is battered, and failure to improve this will only become an ever-greater risk to our democracy.”

Systemic maladministration

Meanwhile, ActionSA MP Alan Beesley said the party welcomed confirmation from the Office of the Public Protector that it had launched an investigation into systemic maladministration by the Presidency, National Treasury and accounting officers for failing to act on corruption referrals made by the SIU.

This follows ActionSA’s complaint lodged on 18 September, after a briefing to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts revealed that of 467 individuals and companies flagged by the SIU for blacklisting on the National Treasury’s Restricted Suppliers Register, only one had actually been listed.

The failure to implement SIU recommendations is allowing suppliers implicated in corruption and maladministration to continue doing business with the state.

Beesley said that while President Cyril Ramaphosa continued to offer lip service to accountability, his Presidency and his executive bore direct responsibility for this “spectacular failure”.

“As South Africa’s constructive opposition in Parliament, ActionSA will continue to ensure that consequence management is enforced across all state institutions, and where it is not, that appropriate action is taken to hold those abusing the state procurement system to buy mansions and Lamborghinis accountable.

“Corrupt suppliers must be barred from ever doing business with the state, while those who enable their corruption must be fired immediately,” said Beesley. DM