On Thursday, the province said it spent over R171 million in its fight against the spread of Covid-19 since the declaration of the National State of Disaster Management Act in March.

Bronwyn Thomas-Abrahams, who is the spokesperson for Premier Zamani Saul, says this list will be shared with the Presidency for further analysis.

Thomas-Abrahams added that the millions of rands were spent on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), social relief, disinfection of public buildings, and infrastructure repairs.

Meanwhile, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing just under 660 companies and contracts, valued at over R5 billion, over corruption allegations regarding the procurement of goods and services.

Various departments across the country have been accused of maladministration and corruption in the procurement of PPE and others.

Thomas-Abrahams said making the list accessible to the public is in the interest of transparency, openness and also to give an account on the provincial government's efforts in containing the spread of the pandemic.

The provincial government is expected to further give an update on additional expenditure incurred, with this list set to form part of the external audit processes of the Auditor-General (AG).

OFM News