- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
Source: https://saftu.org.za/archives/9123
.- Ensure Maumela is joined as an accused in the criminal prosecution of the so-called “Matlala case” (referring to the involvement of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala) and all co-conspirators in the tender-syndicate.
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
Source: https://saftu.org.za/archives/9123
.- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Ensure Maumela is joined as an accused in the criminal prosecution of the so-called “Matlala case” (referring to the involvement of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala) and all co-conspirators in the tender-syndicate.
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
Source: https://saftu.org.za/archives/9123
.- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Ensure Maumela is joined as an accused in the criminal prosecution of the so-called “Matlala case” (referring to the involvement of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala) and all co-conspirators in the tender-syndicate.
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
Source: https://saftu.org.za/archives/9123
.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) expresses its deep outrage at the latest disclosures that Hangwani Morgan Maumela, identified as a major figure in the looting of public health funds at Tembisa Hospital, used part of the proceeds to acquire a R52 million hyper-car (a Pagani Huayra Roadster) and is linked to looting of at least R800 million via shell companies.
These revelations underscore the grotesque extent of corruption in the public health sector: while workers struggle under wage stagnation, facilities collapse, and the working class pays the price of austerity and mis‐allocation of resources, the political-economic elite enrich themselves. We demand that this be treated not purely as an asset forfeiture exercise but as full criminal justice for looted public funds.
Specifically, SAFTU calls on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) and other law‐enforcement organs to:
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Ensure Maumela is joined as an accused in the criminal prosecution of the so-called “Matlala case” (referring to the involvement of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala) and all co-conspirators in the tender-syndicate.
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
Source: https://saftu.org.za/archives/9123
.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) expresses its deep outrage at the latest disclosures that Hangwani Morgan Maumela, identified as a major figure in the looting of public health funds at Tembisa Hospital, used part of the proceeds to acquire a R52 million hyper-car (a Pagani Huayra Roadster) and is linked to looting of at least R800 million via shell companies.
These revelations underscore the grotesque extent of corruption in the public health sector: while workers struggle under wage stagnation, facilities collapse, and the working class pays the price of austerity and mis‐allocation of resources, the political-economic elite enrich themselves. We demand that this be treated not purely as an asset forfeiture exercise but as full criminal justice for looted public funds.
Specifically, SAFTU calls on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) and other law‐enforcement organs to:
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
- Ensure Maumela is joined as an accused in the criminal prosecution of the so-called “Matlala case” (referring to the involvement of Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala) and all co-conspirators in the tender-syndicate.
- Extend investigations beyond seizure of luxury cars and property to full tracing of flows of illicit funds, identifying shell company networks, tax evasion, politically-connected patronage, and implicating public officials who enabled or turned a blind eye to this looting.
- Prioritise the recovery of the full scale of stolen funds for public benefit. The purchase of a R52m hypercar is symptomatic of what we must treat as public property stolen by the few, not merely “luxury excess”.
- Provide timely transparency to the public on progress, so that working‐class communities whose health and dignity have been eroded can see that justice is not just symbolic but substantive.
SAFTU emphasises that this is not merely a “crime of greedy individuals” but reflects a structural problem: networks of tender-syndicates in the health sector, elite capture of procurement, the degradation of the public sector, and the informalisation of work.
The fact that such large public sums can be diverted via more than 40 shell companies (as one press account reports) is a symptom of systemic failure of oversight, transparency and democratic accountability.
As the federation representing workers including those in the health sector, cleaning staff, allied health professionals and support staff. SAFTU asserts that stolen funds equal stolen dignity of workers, stolen services for patients, and stolen futures for communities. In the context of our broader critique of austerity, stagnation, informalisation and privatisation of the public service, this case must be a litmus test of whether South Africa will treat the working class as a mere resource or as equal citizens entitled to justice and public services.
SAFTU demands
● A fast‐tracked criminal investigation, indictment and prosecution of Maumela and all his co-syndicates.
● Full disclosure of all contracts awarded to his network, the amounts, the companies, the shell‐structures, and the officials involved.
● Restoration of the looted funds into the public health system: re-investment in facilities, equipment, staff posts and supplies at Tembisa Hospital and comparable institutions.
● Independent oversight of the asset-recovery process to ensure luxury asset seizures (cars, property, art) are harnessed for public good, not re-cycled or mis-managed.
● Strengthening of procurement rules, public‐sector oversight, worker community participation in monitoring contracts, and trade union access to audit and enforcement processes.
● A national campaign to reclaim public services from corruption: linking this case to the broader struggles for nationalisation of key sectors, democratic planning, worker-cooperatives, and class‐based transformation rather than elite enrichment.
SAFTU calls on its affiliated unions, community‐organisations and health‐workers to mobilise: let this case not fade into another headline. Let it become a turning point in reclaiming the public sector, securing decent work, defeating informalisation and ensuring that every rand stolen from the hospital does not remain hidden but is redirected into healing and hope for working people.
The object lessons from this scandal are stark when public funds are stolen, it is the working class and the poor who pay; when luxury cars replace hospital beds, the human cost is immeasurable. We will monitor this case closely, hold authorities accountable, and continue to press for a working‐class agenda in which public services, democratic control and social justice prevail.
A Statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at
Newton Masuku at:
0661682157
