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30 Sep, 2025
The R2 billion warning: reform procurement or repeat Tembisa everywhere
Statement by Thandi Nontenja, MP, UDM Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts The United Democratic Movement (UDM) has note with alarm the interim report of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into the looting of Tembisa Hospital. The SIU has confirmed what many South Africans feared: more than R2 billion was siphoned away through coordinated syndicates that exploited procurement loopholes. The report reveals that 2 207 procurement bundles, 4 501 purchase orders and 207 service providers are under scrutiny. Three criminal networks alone are linked to nearly R1.7 billion. At least 15 officials have been implicated, while R122 million in corrupt payments have been traced to insiders. Services were invoiced and paid for but never delivered. Even losing bidders were paid. The sophistication of these schemes, including fake supply chain documents, front companies and manipulation of three quote rules, proves that this was not opportunism but organised criminality within the state. The assassination of whistle-blower Babita Deokaran is a tragic reminder of how dangerous it has become to expose corruption in our country. Her murder was not in vain; the SIU findings vindicate her warnings. But South Africans cannot be expected to rely on martyrs to defend public money. The UDM is clear: Tembisa is not an outlier. It is a mirror of how corruption has hollowed out our state. The same patterns can be seen in housing projects, water schemes, municipal contracts, state owned enterprises and schools. This case must be treated as a wakeup call for comprehensive reform across all sectors, not only in health. We therefore call for: 1. Swift prosecution of all implicated individuals with clear timelines for referrals from the SIU to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), and public updates on progress in the courts. 2. End to end digital procurement across government with full transparency and audit trails. 3. Whistle-blower protection as a matter of urgency, with the state ensuring that the next Babita is not left vulnerable. 4. A specialised anti-corruption task team combining the SIU, NPA, Auditor General and SAPS commercial crimes units, with quarterly public reporting. 5. Swift recovery of assets so that mansions, cars and bank accounts bought with stolen funds are seized and redirected to service delivery. 6. Political accountability so that senior officials and politicians who presided over these failures must answer, not hide behind process. South Africa cannot afford another decade of commissions and reports gathering dust while syndicates loot unchecked. Every stolen rand is a bed without linen, a clinic without medicine and a community without water. The Tembisa heist is not only about one hospital. It is the clearest example yet of a state where corruption has become a parallel system of government. Unless procurement is reformed from top to bottom, we will see Tembisa repeated in every department and municipality. The UDM stands ready to fight for reforms that restore dignity to our public finances, protect whistle-blowers, and return stolen resources to the people they were meant to serve.
