Top Mpumalanga official in court over R21m PPE corruption
Top Mpumalanga official Jabulani Nkosi made a brief appearance at the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on Monday following his arrest at the weekend.
The former acting head of department in the Department of Education was arrested for contravening various sections of the Public Finance Management Act.
An investigation by the Special Investigating Unit into the procurement of personal protective equipment by the Education Department revealed that Nkosi, in his capacity as the accounting officer, allegedly failed to comply with the provisions of the act in procuring PPE to the value of R21.9 million.
The procurement period dates back to May 2020.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says the procurement of PPE items like hazard bin liners, face shield, germ kill hand sanitizer, multipurpose industrial disinfectant, infrared forehead thermometer and safety goggles resulted in unauthorized, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Nkosi was released on R10 000 bail.
"The matter was remanded to 20 April 2022 for further investigations.
"Meanwhile, the SIU will approach the Special Tribunal seeking to review and set aside the PPE tender and to recover financial losses suffered by the State and the education department," Kganyago adds.
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