{"id":254376,"date":"2023-03-23T09:43:54","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T07:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/businessman-to-be-sentenced-for-attempted-bribery-of-siu-official\/"},"modified":"2023-03-23T09:43:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T07:43:54","slug":"businessman-to-be-sentenced-for-attempted-bribery-of-siu-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/businessman-to-be-sentenced-for-attempted-bribery-of-siu-official\/","title":{"rendered":"Businessman to be sentenced for attempted bribery of SIU official"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Sentencing proceedings for a Mpumalanga businessman who attempted to bribe a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigator are expected to kick off at the Mbombela Magistrates\u2019 Court this morning.<\/p>\n

According to a joint statement by the SIU and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Sipho Mapala was arrested after attempting to bribe the investigator to make \u201ca COVID-19 procurement investigation\u201d against fellow business person, Gugu Bulunga.<\/p>\n

\u201cMapalala was arrested in August 2021 during a joint operation with the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation [the Hawks] when he was delivering a bribe of R50 000 to the SIU investigator,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

According to the two agencies, Mapalala entered a guilty plea statement in which he acknowledged the wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it was wrong to provide money\/payment to the investigator, as she was an official of the SIU. I gave this money to the SIU investigator to compensate the investigator and the other people the investigator referred to, to compensate them to crush the involvement of Gugu Bulunga.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to help Gugu to get out of the mess which caused her severe anxiety and the threat to her life. I therefore admit that I corrupted the SIU investigator and that my actions were unlawful and punishable,\u201d Mapalala said in the statement.<\/p>\n

The case<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the SIU and NPA, Mapalala and Bulunga\u2019s troubles with the law began when the SIU launched an investigation into the affairs of the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads, and Transport which uncovered procurement irregularities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SIU investigations revealed that the department contracted a service provider in the 2017\/18 financial year for pest control services. However, when a National State of Disaster was declared, the Department varied the contract to include disinfection services in the Ehlanzeni District.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disinfection services were for buildings owned and managed by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government in the said District. After the disinfection, the service provider received multiple payments amounting to R4.8 million,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the first payment of some R1.3 million, the service provider began to disburse the money to several entities and individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the entities that received money then made various payments which were traced to an Mpumalanga based law firm and two employees of the Department. The law firm bought a property to the value of R2.2 million and registered it in the name of a daughter of one of the two departmental officials.<\/p>\n

\u201c[During] August 2021, the SIU interviewed Bulunga \u2026 [who] was questioned about payments made to government officials and properties bought for government officials. Bulunga denied the allegations. Hours after the interview, Mapalala called an SIU investigator to declare that he is prepared to do anything to make the matter against Bulunga to go away,\u201d the statement read. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sentencing proceedings for a Mpumalanga businessman who attempted to bribe a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigator are expected to kick off at the Mbombela Magistrates\u2019 Court this morning. According to a joint statement by the SIU and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Sipho Mapala was arrested after attempting to bribe the investigator to make \u201ca […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-254376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/businessman-to-be-sentenced-for-attempted-bribery-of-siu-official.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}