The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has commenced its investigation into allegations of maladministration in the affairs of the Department of Defence.
The unit is also authorised as per President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Proclamation 260 of 2025 to recover any losses suffered by the state.
The SIU probe will examine whether the procurement and contracting were made in a manner that was not fair, competitive, transparent, equitable, or cost-effective or in violation of applicable legislation, guidelines, or instructions from the National or Provincial Treasury.
“This includes the Department’s or the State’s unauthorised, irregular, or wasteful expenditure.
“Furthermore, the SIU will seek to establish if there was any misappropriation of unidentified payments received by the Department,” said SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, who was speaking on You FM Newshour.
According to Kganyago, the probe will also look at any irregular, unlawful, or improper conduct by officials or employees of the Department, its suppliers or service providers, or any other person or entity implicated.
He said that they will, in line with Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals Act 74 of 1996 (SIU Act), refer any evidence of criminal conduct uncovered during its investigation to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for further action.
“We will do like we always do. But the first thing that we need to do is to go into the details because what we have seen so far is the fact that there were companies that were pin-pointed or picked from people they knew. In some cases, we found that they were asked to just send their (company) letterheads that are empty that they can use to put information on. Secondly, we saw that the people who were paid are not the same people who were awarded the contracts,” explained the spokesperson.
Furthermore, Kganyago highlighted that the probe was made easy after a whistle-blower came forward.
“We got a whistle-blower that came our way and gave us the documentation and were able to follow it up.
“We also worked on the report that we got because this matter was investigated also by the military police within the police itself and got hold of those documentations that we believe will help us a lot to prepare a motivation for the president to sign,” remarked Kganyago.
When asked if their investigation will not duplicate what the military police have already uncovered at the department, he said that theirs will focus on whether proper processes were followed, empowered by the powers that the police don’t have.
“We have powers to take forward this matter once we establish that there were irregularities through the Special Tribunal for the contracts to be cancelled and monies lost recouped. Beyond investigating all these allegations, the SIU is committed to identify systemic failures and recommend measures to prevent future losses,” concluded Kganyago.
