The Hawks will carry out a series of raids linked to their investigation into fraud, corruption, theft and money laundering in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality until the end of the week, spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said.
This followed the swoop on Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani on Tuesday along with about four municipal public health officials.
Bobani’s office and home was raided by officials from the directorate for priority crime investigation.
During the search and seizure operation, the Hawks seized cellphones and a laptop belonging to Bobani’s wife.
It is the second raid on Bobani in six months.
In October, the Hawks seized documents, cellphones and laptops in another probe linked to the Integrated Public Transport System.
Bobani’s attorney Danie Gouws confirmed the raid this week stems from the Milongani forensic report.
The Milongani draft report by PricewaterhouseCoopers details allegations of tender rigging, fraud, and collusion by officials in the municipality’s public health department.
The company, Milongani Eco-Consulting, received R25.6m for environmental management services.
The probe found that about R18.5m of the total that was paid to Milongani under the guise of “waste diversion and beneficiation” was actually for the salaries of six interns and a retired metro employee paid through Milongani.
But the salaries paid to the staff over 16 months actually amounted to R1.3-million, according to the report.
Bobani, who was political head of the public health department for the latter part of Milongani’s three-year contract, was not named as having done anything untoward in the draft report seen by the press.
The final report is yet to be released.
Bobani was fired from the position in May 2017 by then mayor Athol Trollip amid claims that irregular payments had been made to Milongani while Bobani held the position in public health.
When he was initially asked to comment on the raid at his office and home, Bobani laughed hysterically.
He later said: “I’m not going to comment on the raids by the Hawks anywhere on my side. You deal with that with my lawyer.
“We will deal politically with the DA’s propaganda campaign in terms of smearing my name. They think they can single out or use my name in order to achieve their goal; they will never succeed.
“We’ll deal with the politics around that matter.”
United Democratic Movement president Bantu Holomisa said: “We won’t entertain anything else until the Hawks and NPA comes forward with a case.
“We’re going to allow the law to take its course.”..