Hawks seize luxury home and cars linked to R5 million PPE fraud

The Hawks have swooped in on assets worth over R2.5 million linked to a former senior Mpumalanga health department official accused of pocketing millions through a fraudulent personal protective equipment (PPE) deal during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Mpumalanga High Court in Mbombela granted the elite crime-fighting unit a preservation order to seize a house in the upscale suburb of Sunninghill, Johannesburg, and three vehicles — a Toyota Quantum, a Hyundai truck, and a VW Golf — all believed to have been bought using money from the dodgy deal.

The seized home is valued at R1.5 million, while the vehicles are collectively worth around R1 million.

The case is part of a wider investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into PPE corruption, which has uncovered that R13.3 billion out of the R30.7 billion spent by the government during the pandemic is under scrutiny for irregularities.

According to police, the corruption traces back to 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when emergency procurement led to irregular PPE tenders. One such deal involved a R5 million contract in which payments were made, but the goods were either never delivered or grossly overpriced.

Investigators from the Hawks revealed that after one such payment, a residential property worth R1.5 million was purchased in Barberton, Mpumalanga.

The property was registered under a company named Zanderson Establishment, whose sole director was Yolanda Sanderson, daughter of the former health department secretary, Sanele Sanderson.

That Barberton house was later sold for the same amount. Soon after, the family acquired the Sunninghill property, which was registered in a different company, SS Umova, under Sanele Sanderson’s name.

The Hawks suspect that these transactions were part of an effort to hide assets purchased with the proceeds of crime. Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi, spokesperson for the Hawks, confirmed the asset seizures and said the matter was still under criminal investigation.

“This is just one part of a larger probe into PPE fraud that took place under the guise of an emergency,” he said.

The head of the Hawks in Mpumalanga, Major General Nico Gerber, said law enforcement is determined to recover public funds lost through corruption.“We will trace and seize assets derived from criminal proceeds, forfeit them to the state, and ensure they are sold to recover the financial losses,” said Gerber.

He praised the collaboration between law enforcement agencies, including the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit, which helped secure the preservation order.“This shows our commitment to rooting out corruption and ensuring that those who exploit public crises for personal gain are held accountable,” Gerber added.

The Hawks have not yet confirmed if arrests will follow, but investigations are ongoing as authorities dig deeper into the network of individuals and companies linked to the scandal. This case serves as a stark reminder of the billions lost to corruption during South Africa’s fight against Covid-19 — and the long road to recovering stolen public funds.