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EAST LONDON: South Africa’s elite police arrested more than a dozen members of the ruling party, including a provincial minister, on Friday for stealing funds intended for Nelson Mandela’s funeral eight years ago.
Fifteen suspects, including the current Eastern Cape province health minister Sindiswa Gomba, who was then a municipal councilor, as well as legislators and business owners from the African National Congress (ANC), received bail after a brief court appearance.
They had initially been charged in 2019, but the charges were provisionally dropped.
After further investigation, the Hawks, a law enforcement unit that handles corruption and other special crimes, arrested the suspects on Friday.
They face corruption and money laundering charges amounting to around R10 million.
The charges arose over fraudulent claims for the transportation of mourners and the cost of places reserved for the memorial service of the country’s first black president in the eastern coastal city of London to the south.
A magistrate released them on bail of 1,000 rand each and ordered them to return to court on March 5, police spokesman Katlego Mogale said in a statement.
The arrests came a day after the 31st anniversary of Mandela’s release from 27 years in prison.
After being released from prison in 1990, he led the country’s transformation into a multiracial democracy.
He died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95.
In an annual national address on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that evidence presented before a corruption investigation panel under former President Jacob Zuma demonstrated “how the criminal justice system was compromised and weakened.”
