Criminal charges for ex-Gauteng Agriculture head over ‘dodgy’ tender won by Pule Mabe company

Matilda Gasela, the previous head of the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD), is facing corruption and fraud charges for tender irregularities dating back to her time as head of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

She appeared alongside former ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe and five others in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Wednesday (16 October), News24 reported.

The charges relate to a R27-million tender for waste collection vehicles, irregularly awarded to Mabe’s company, Enviro Mobi, by the agriculture department.

According to the Special Investigations Unit, the vehicles provided by Enviro Mobi were substandard. Gasela is alleged to have mismanaged the contract, approving payments to Enviro Mobi despite nondelivery, and authorising against legal advice an “unnecessary” R6.5-million settlement for storage costs.

Gasela was moved from the agriculture department to head the DSD in July 2023 by premier Panyaza Lesufi, despite some of the current allegations against her already being public.

This was at a time when the DSD was attempting to clean up corruption. The clean-up efforts were led by former MEC Mbali Hlophe.

Hlophe has denied that she played any role in Gasela’s appointment.

Gasela’s contract came to an end in April 2024 and was not renewed.

While Gasela and Hlophe were in office, control over funding and procurement was centralised, causing catastrophic delays in funding for hundreds of nonprofit organisations. The department ended up underspending its budget by R554-million. Many organisations were forced to temporarily scale down services and some even closed. Dozens of organisations had their funding halted, based on corruption and mismanagement allegations, which were later successfully rejected by the implicated organisations.

Meanwhile, there have been no consequences for those organisations, officials and political leaders who were involved in corruption at the department.

Gasela also signed off on multimillion-rand budget deviations for food parcels and dignity packs. Suppliers were awarded contracts without going through tender processes, resulting in adverse findings by the Auditor-General of South Africa.

Gasela was also central to several questionable actions taken by the department:

• In July 2023, the department considered buying a R70-million hotel, with no clear goal for its use. A site visit was led by Gasela;


• In October 2023, the department cut funding to a nonprofit organisation providing meals and social work services to homeless people in Tshwane. This was after Gasela made an unannounced visit to the facility from which the organisation was operating. The organisation went to the Pretoria High Court, which ordered the department to pay the organisation;


• In November 2023, while several nonprofit drug rehabs had their funding cut based on unsubstantiated allegations, the department pushed through funding for a new drug rehab managed by private healthcare company Clinix Health Group. The approval was signed by Gasela; and


• Gasela personally signed a rejection of GroundUp’s Promotion of Access to Information Act submission, in which we requested a list of all nonprofits funded by the department since 2014. National policy requires these documents to be made available to the public, but the Gauteng Department of Social Development has refused to do so. DM