Cape Town - Eight people including a former South Cape TVET College chief executive were expected to appear in the George Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on allegations of enriching themselves with money meant for a major construction project.
They are facing a charge of corruption and 16 counts of fraud, alternatively theft, after the college lost more than R24 million.
The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in George, together with Public Order Policing, nabbed the suspects, aged between 36 and 60, on warrants of arrest on Wednesday morning.
Western Cape Hawks spokesperson, Zinzi Hani said it was alleged that between March 2009 and August 2014, the suspects, who were employees and contractors of the South Cape College, colluded together.
Hani said they allegedly resolved to unlawfully and intentionally submit non-compliant bid documents and quotations for the construction and renovations of the South Cape Colleges across all campuses in the district.
“Furthermore, the investigation revealed that the CEO influenced other officials to deviate from the tender process in order for the scheme to benefit the involved entities.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that some of the employees were directors or members of certain entities and never disclosed that they were involved, directly or indirectly.
“This resulted in prejudice and a loss to the South Cape TVET College to the amount over R24 million,” said Hani.
She said this led to the matter being reported to the Hawks in 2014 by the Department of Higher Education.
Cape Times