LIMPOPO
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo has referred new allegations concerning Great North Transport’s (GNT) procurement of an electronic ticketing system to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), while demanding answers on the progress of an existing corruption probe at the entity.
DA Limpopo Spokesperson on Provincial Treasury, Jacques Smalle, said the party had received information raising concerns that successive ticketing service providers, may not be wholly independent and that directors or owners of companies involved, may be individuals from within GNT or its parent entity, the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (LEDA).
Lending weight to these concerns, Smalle said, is the allegation that technicians involved in previous GNT ticketing systems are again being used to install new machines.
The referral comes more than 18 months after President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized an SIU investigation into GNT procurement and maladministration under Proclamation 246 of 2025. That proclamation covers multiple matters, including possible unlawful conduct, losses of public money and corruption.
According to the DA, there has been no substantive public account of the SIU investigation’s progress, findings, referrals, recoveries or recommendations to date.
“GNT cannot continue to be a financial black hole into which taxpayers are expected to pour hundreds of millions more while serious questions remain about where previous funding went,” Smalle said.
The party pointed to almost R1 billion in taxpayer support that has failed to stabilize GNT, which is now seeking another R198.8 million in public funding. This comes as the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) has questioned its continued trading and demanded answers by the end of this month.
The DA said it will ask the SIU to investigate the alleged links between successive ticketing service providers and individuals within GNT or LEDA, and to determine whether these matters fall within the scope of its existing investigation.
The party said it will further submit questions to the MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET), Tshitereke Matibe, on previous and current ticketing contracts, company ownership, technicians used, possible interests held by GNT or LEDA officials, and why the previous system is being replaced.
“The province cannot continue pouring public money into GNT while serious questions about procurement, weak controls, past expenditure and possible maladministration and corruption remain unresolved. Before another rand is committed, the public deserves to know what was bought before, why it is being replaced, who benefited from those contracts and, above all, whether any public money was lost,” Smalle said.