Are we learning that crime doesn’t pay?

The Special Investigating Unit swooped on the luxury Sandhurst mansion of businessman Hangwani Maumela on Thursday, seizing high-end vehicles and artwork as part of an R820m asset-recovery operation tied to looting at Tembisa Hospital.

Last week, the SIU revealed a devastating plunder of the public purse in its probe into the hospital, uncovering three coordinated syndicates responsible for the looting of over R2bn meant for health care at the hospital.

The Maumela syndicate is one that the SIU probe uncovered. It is linked to Hangwani Morgan Maumela, who is alleged to have swindled R820m in questionable, dodgy tenders.

The SIU revealed last week that assets belonging to Maumela amounted to about R520m, including luxury vehicles and properties valued at R293m, one worth R75m in Bantry Bay and others in Gauteng.

The SIU assisted the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit to identify assets linked to Maumela, which resulted in the unit attaching some of them on Thursday.

The attachment of the assets suspected of being obtained through illegal means should be welcomed. The next step is for authorities to ensure that these assets are declared forfeit to the state and proceeds from their sale benefit the people affected by the plundering.

There are two other syndicates identified by the SIU, and authorities should move with speed to ensure that assets obtained through dubious means are preserved and eventually forfeited to the state after following due legal process.

Efforts by authorities should not end there. Criminal prosecutions should follow where the state believes there is a case for implicated individuals and companies to answer.

It is worrying that despite the huge amounts that were lost, the SIU has to date only referred four matters to the NPA for corruption involving officials of the Gauteng department of health, the hospital and implicated service providers. With corruption on such a huge scale, more suspects should have been referred for criminal prosecutions.

However, the public will not forget the fanfare in 2020 when authorities seized assets worth millions belonging to another tender businessman, Edwin Sodi. These assets were frozen by the Asset Forfeiture Unit pending a money laundering and corruption case against him.

These assets are still under preservation five years later, as the case against Sodi has still not been finalised. This means he still has use of some of the assets despite them being under preservation.

These include his R85m Bryanston home, which he used to host his 50th birthday party in 2023.

It is hoped authorities will move with speed to ensure these assets end up in the permanent possession of the state, to honour the memory of Gauteng health official Babita Deokaran, who was killed in 2021 after she halted R850m in suspicious payments to hundreds of companies linked to the hospital.