Amabhungane Thelaundry From Government Contracts To A Laundry Web

A housing contractor was awarded a suspect emergency tender during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite having its bank accounts frozen and then seized.

Authorities alleged its director controlled a vast money laundering network.

Along the way, both underground and legitimate financial service providers were enlisted to allegedly fake documents, steal identities and ensure safe passage for hundreds of millions of rand destined for China and Hong Kong.

News24 Business front page .

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the South African government went large on emergency contracts for everything from masks and hand sanitiser to makeshift housing and hospital beds.

The Special Investigating Unit SIU was later tasked with sifting through thousands of contracts to find irregular, unlawful or fraudulent deals. It found thousands, which it summarised in a doorstopper December 2021 final report to President Cyril Ramaphosa.

One case from the Eastern Cape human settlements department was a R126-million deal for the provision of 1 800 temporary shelters for residents of dense, overcrowded informal settlements where the risk of infection was amplified.

More important for this story, however, is one of the companies winning a quarter of this ill-fated contract a prolific government housing contractor named the Takela Group.