South Africa Arrests Suspect in $37m Hospital Corruption Case

South Africa’s Hawks investigative unit has arrested a 37-year-old man at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg as he returned from abroad. Authorities have not named him.

He is accused in an investigation into corruption, procurement fraud and money laundering involving 635 million rand, about $37 million, at Tembisa Hospital. Investigators allege that hospital officials colluded with service providers to keep individual transactions below 500,000 rand so that formal tender procedures did not apply. He is expected to face fraud, corruption and money laundering charges in a Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.

The arrest forms part of a wider probe into claims that more than 2 billion rand was looted from the hospital. The Special Investigating Unit has identified three coordinated syndicates that allegedly used networks of companies and thousands of irregular transactions to divert funds. The irregular procurement was first flagged by Gauteng Health Department whistleblower Babita Deokaran, who was murdered in 2021.

Article Credit: https://www.occrp.org/en/news/south-africa-arrests-suspect-in-37m-hospital-corruption-case