Billions recovered since the establishment of anti-corruption unit in the City of Johannesburg

An estimated R10 billion has been lost in various departments in the metro through corruption.

This expose is a result of the new internal anti-corruption unit headed by former provincial Hawks head Shadrack Sibiya‚ who has clamped down on government officials doing corruption in the city.

"The total monetary value alleged to be lost or misused as a result of fraud and corruption is over R10 billion.

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"To date this unit has exposed and prevented fraud and corruption estimated at R2 billion across a number of different departments and entities‚" said Mayor Herman Mashaba‚ during his state of the city address.

He was speaking at the new council chamber valued at R360 million in Braamfontein on Wednesday.

The city‚ through its Johannesburg Property Company‚ in 2015 announced a R2.5-billion upgrade of its Braamfontein Metro Centre‚ along with several regional offices.

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"To date‚ 30 employees have been arrested since the establishment of this unit and we will be keeping a close eye on the progress of those cases before court. In addition‚ 91 employees have been suspended and three senior officials have resigned as a result of these investigations‚" said Mashaba.

The mayor revealed that 300 cases are currently being investigated.

• Johannesburg Mayor paints administration as 'unapologetically pro-poor' in historic addressDuring the public opening of the new R360 million Council Chamber‚ the mayor of the City of Johannesburg called his administration “unapologetically pro-poor” and pledged a new direction to address the needs of the city’s under-served - allocating the bulk of the growing budget to this community. 

With a city sitting with a backlog of service delivery‚ Mashaba said this money should have been utilised to eradicate the conditions of the state of poor people in the city.

However‚ former finance MMC in the ANC-aligned Parks Tau administration‚ Geoffrey Makhubo‚ said the Internal Investigation Unit has been tackling corruption already‚ accusing Mashaba of parading the previous administration’s investigations as new cases uncovered by the Democratic Alliance.