This comes after the Hawks in the North West said the second suspect – a man – was expected to do so on Friday already. Provincial Hawks spokesperson, Tlangelani Rikhotso, did not reveal any other details to OFM News.

On Friday, the Hawks made their first arrest in connection with the case, taking Nelson into custody before she made a brief appearance in the Mmabatho Regional Court. She was later released out on R20 000 bail and is expected to reappear in the same courthouse on 6 September. 

Nelson, a known close ally of the controversial former North West Premier, Supra Mahumapelo, has been linked to the irregular appointment of a senior official in the troubled provincial Health Department in 2014.

According to Poloko Tau at City Press speculation is rife that the unidentified suspect is the embattled Head of the North West health department, Thabo Lekalakala, who came to prominence in 2018 for the controversial deal the department had with Gupta-linked Mediosa healthcare company. 

In his State of the Province Address delivered in June 2019, current Premier, Job Mokgoro, stressed the government was clamping down on corruption working alongside the Hawks. He revealed the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation had investigated 46 cases pertaining to corruption in the North West government, and of those, ten were on the court roll awaiting trial. Mokgoro says all the cases, involves monies over R2 billion. The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) on the other end is said to be working on 44 cases. There is no indication as to how far the SIU is with those investigations.

The provincial government has also done away with controversial contracts some of which have made national headlines, like the one the office of the Premier had with IT Company, Nepo Data Dynamics, which came into spotlight during the Hawks’ raid of the Premier’s office in March 2018. Mokgoro has been accused by opposition parties of facilitating the deal with the IT Company, when he was acting Director-General, something which he has since refuted. The Health Department’s contract with Buthelezi is yet to be terminated, but is being probed at national level.

OFM News