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ActionSA can reveal that dozens of individuals and companies implicated in State Capture and the PPE corruption scandal remain fully eligible to continue to trade with government. 

A written reply from the Minister of Finance to ActionSA’s parliamentary question shows that, of the 509 individuals and entities the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) formally recommended for blacklisting, only 18 have been placed on National Treasury’s List of Restricted Suppliers. This means a staggering 491 implicated suppliers remain free to continue to secure government contracts. 

This revelation confirms ActionSA’s longstanding warning that consequence management in the public procurement system is fundamentally broken, and that urgent reforms are required to prevent further abuse of public funds.

The reply further reveals that several suppliers implicated in the State Capture-era corruption scandals, including entities like EOH, SAP and Impulse, have still not been blacklisted, despite detailed SIU referrals. These entities were referred after the SIU uncovered widespread overpricing, irregular tender awards, and systematic manipulation of procurement processes across multiple departments. Yet they remain fully eligible to win new government contracts. 

The failure to blacklist suppliers involved in State Capture-related abuses and patent non-performance and non-compliance demonstrates the government’s continued inability, or unwillingness, to close the procurement loopholes that enabled billions of rands in public funds to be siphoned off during the State Capture period.

The same pattern of systemic failure is evident in the government’s handling of the PPE procurement scandal. Companies implicated in fraudulent COVID-19 tenders, including those identified by the SIU for inflating prices, providing substandard goods, or receiving contracts through political patronage, remain absent from the restricted suppliers list. During a time when South Africans were facing a deadly pandemic, corrupt companies and individuals enriched themselves through the exploitation of emergency procurement processes. 

The fact that these entities remain legally permitted to continue trading with the state is an indictment of the government’s inability to enforce even the most basic consequences for wrongdoing.

Most shockingly, the infamous Digital Vibes scandal, which forced the resignation of a national minister and exposed brazen abuse of public funds, has still not resulted in the company or its key actors being blacklisted. Despite the SIU’s explicit findings of irregular contracting, inflated invoices, and the diversion of public money for personal benefit, Digital Vibes and the individuals behind it do not appear on National Treasury’s List of Restricted Suppliers. 

This failure to act on one of the most widely publicised corruption scandals of the past decade shows that even high-profile cases with extensive evidence do not automatically trigger blacklisting, underscoring how deeply broken the system has become.

Most recently, in response to another ActionSA parliamentary question, the Minister of Health confirmed that none of the 207 suppliers implicated in the R2 billion looting of Tembisa Hospital have been blacklisted. This means that the individuals and companies who siphoned off billions meant for public health services to buy palatial mansions and Lamborghinis are still able to do business with the state.

As South Africa's constructive opposition party in Parliament, ActionSA refuses to sit idly by while corrupt suppliers continue to do business with government. We have therefore laid a complaint with the Public Protector to investigate this systemic maladministration. The Public Protector is investigating our complaint, and we look forward to the outcome of the investigation. 

Furthermore, ActionSA is working on introducing legislation that gives National Treasury more power to act swiftly to ensure that corruption-implicated suppliers are barred from ever doing business with government again.

ActionSA will continue to champion the reforms needed to restore integrity, accountability and trust in South Africa’s public procurement system.

Issued by ActionSA Member of Parliament Alan Beesley MP