ANC MP Bongani Bongo released on R5K bail after Hawks arrest

Bongani Bongo, an African National Congress (ANC) MP and chair of parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee, has been released on R5,000 bail after appearing briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on bribery and corruption charges.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Western Cape spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila confirmed that the case will next be heard on January 31, 2020.

Sources earlier confirmed that the ANC MP arrested in Cape Town on Thursday morning by the Hawks on charges of bribery and corruption was Bongo, who is a former minister of state security.

eNCA previously indicated that the MP was male and a chair of one of parliament’s portfolio committees.

Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi told eNCA that the suspect was being processed for court following his arrest this morning.

It has also been confirmed that in a separate matter, nine other people – believed to be high ranking government officials and business people – have been arrested in several provinces, including Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, on charges of corruption.

A tenth is also expected to be arrested on Thursday.

Those arrested are reportedly being charged for their involvement in the Amathole District Municipality toilet scandal, which took place in 2015. 

This involved the awarding of a R630 million tender to the Siyenza Group to build 66,000 toilets in the Eastern Cape district, with proper procurement procedures allegedly not followed.

Several ANC officials have been accused of being linked to Siyenza Group, a company which investigations showed had not been arrested at the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

“There is another sweep that we are conducting in different parts of the country, where we are going to be arresting about 10 suspects for corruption. So those are the two main issues that we are dealing with today,” said Mulaudzi.

“Both cases we are dealing with are corruption-related. They are both separate cases. The one that is being dealt with in Cape Town is our main office that is dealing with that, and the other ten suspects [are] being dealt with by our Eastern Cape office.”