Serious concerns regarding consequence management in the use of public funds have been raised following revelations that a staggering R5.1bn is linked to financial misconduct by government officials across Eastern Cape provincial departments.
The amounts are tied to a wide range of financial misconduct cases, including irregular expenditure, fraud, fruitless and wasteful spending, misuse of government property, and failure to disclose financial interests.
This was revealed by premier Oscar Mabuyane in response to a parliamentary question from the DA, shedding light on the scale and persistence of financial irregularities within the provincial administration.
According to Mabuyane, as of September 2025, the province had recorded 1,437 cases of financial misconduct. Of these, 1,182 cases were finalised, with an average of 387 days to conclude. Meanwhile, 255 cases remained unresolved, with some dating back to three years ago.
The slow pace has raised concerns about the effectiveness of disciplinary processes and their ability to deliver timely justice.
DA MPL Vicky Knoetze said these transgressions exposed a consequence management system that was “plainly failing”. She said the amount could fund about 20,000 RDP houses for families in need.
Officials see that the disciplinary process is slow, inconsistent and often avoidable
— Vicky Knoetze, DA MPL
“The message this sends is clear: there is no accountability for wrongful action,” Knoetze said. “Officials see that the disciplinary process is slow, inconsistent and often avoidable.”
The figures show that 187 warning letters were issued to officials involved in financial misconduct totalling R908m. They show that transactions worth R3.2m, linked to 52 cases which were deemed irregular, were condoned while R155m linked to 11 cases was written off.
Mabuyane revealed that 119 cases of irregular expenditure, amounting to R330.7m were dismissed, while the provincial government managed to only recoup R373,000 from 79 cases of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. He told the legislature that investigations of officials involved in 30 cases ended when the implicated officials resigned.
The provincial department of health has the highest number of financial misconduct cases reported, with 400 cases. It is followed by:
- the department of transport with 355 cases;
- agriculture department with 206 cases;
- public works with 172 cases; and
- the education department with 144 cases.
Mabuyane, however, said the department of agriculture had finalised 99% of its cumulative cases, with 152 finalised by the last quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year, subsequently becoming one of the few departments that started on a new slate. “However, the department is advised to tighten its preventative controls to avoid regression and incurring new financial misconduct,” he said.
Knoetze said she would write to the chair of the standing committee on public accounts to request that public hearings be held where departments would be forced to give full account of every outstanding financial misconduct case across provincial departments.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that delivers, and a future built on dignity, opportunity and honest government
— Knoetze
She said this would include the age of each case, the disciplinary stage reached, the reasons for delay, and how many implicated officials resigned before matters were finalised.
She would also table a motion in the legislature demanding:
- urgent consequence management across provincial departments;
- fixed deadlines for long-outstanding cases;
- mandatory reporting on cases where officials resigned before conclusion; and
- the publication of department-by-department outcomes.
“The people of the Eastern Cape deserve leadership that delivers, and a future built on dignity, opportunity and honest government,” Knoetze said.
Mabuyane’s office did not comment by the time of publication.
In November 2025, it was reported that nearly 100 government officials had been fired or suspended without pay for financial transgressions totalling R74.7m over a five-year period. Forty were fired for transgressions amounting to more than R38.5m, and a further 50 officials were suspended without pay for transgressions involving R36.2m.
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