President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the Special Investigating Unit to investigate allegations of 'serious maladministration' in the procurement, supply, delivery and offloading of LED streetlight and floodlight fixtures in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

Listen to this article 5 min Listen to this article 5 min It started with dark streets. Then there were rumours and complaints, followed by an internal audit report. A member of the Defenders of the People opened a criminal case and now there's a fully-fledged investigation into the procurement and supply of streetlight fixtures in Nelson Mandela Bay.

While an internal report claims that the municipality's electricity department incurred R24-million in irregular expenditure, a recent audit by the Democratic Alliance found there could be as many as 10,000 streetlights out in the metro -- although the department does not appear to have official figures.

Now President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed Proclamation 170 of 2024 authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of serious maladministration against the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMBMM) and to recover any financial losses suffered by the state or the metro with a specific focus on the supply, delivery and offloading of streetlighting and floodlighting luminaires and payments made for this.

"The SIU will also investigate any unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by [the metro] or the state. The scope of the investigation also covers any unlawful or improper conduct by...