VANDERBIJLPARK, Monday 7 September 2026 — Police investigating a R16 million Emfuleni municipal fleet tender say the case forms part of a broader investigation launched after financial clerk and whistleblower Martha Rantsofu was murdered in March, as businessman Mpho Malema appeared in court on Monday and was remanded in custody ahead of a bail application.
Malema appeared briefly in the Vanderbijlpark Magistrates’ Court on fraud, theft and corruption charges connected to a fleet contract under which the municipality allegedly paid for 18 vehicles but received only seven.
The State intends opposing bail.
The matter was postponed to 14 September 2026, when Malema is expected to apply for release.
His company, Maboela Forestry and Construction CC, has been linked by investigators to the disputed municipal contract.
Malema has not been convicted and the allegations against him remain to be proved in court.
The latest development is significant because police have now publicly connected the tender case to a wider investigation arising from Rantsofu’s killing.
National SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said investigators became involved in the procurement matters while investigating possible motives for the municipal employee’s murder.
“We are here because we’re looking for the motive of the murder of Martha Rantsofu,” Mathe said in comments reported by SABC News.
Rantsofu, an Emfuleni financial official, was shot dead in Vanderbijlpark in March.
Police have said she had raised concerns about procurement and financial matters within the municipality before her death.
The existence of an investigation does not establish that the fleet tender caused or was directly responsible for her killing.
Police are examining those links as part of the wider murder investigation.
The Gauteng Political Killings Task Team has become increasingly involved in cases connected to Emfuleni.
Mathe said the task team is working on approximately 30 cases, with 17 already before the courts.
Police have arrested 31 suspects across those matters, according to figures she provided on Monday.
Those cases are not all necessarily part of a single criminal conspiracy.
They include separate alleged procurement, fraud and electricity-related offences uncovered as investigators examined circumstances surrounding Rantsofu’s death.
The disputed fleet contract dates from 2022 and 2023.
Police say the supplier was contracted to provide 18 vehicles, including municipal trucks.
Investigators allege that only seven were delivered even though the municipality paid the contract amount.
Emfuleni’s former fleet manager Lerato Mpholo was arrested earlier in connection with the same investigation and has been released on R25,000 bail.
A municipal investigation previously raised concerns about invoices certifying that vehicles had been supplied when some allegedly had not been delivered.
Police have since traced some of the missing vehicles.
SABC News reported on Monday that investigators had identified a further seven vehicles connected to the wider investigation that were registered not to Emfuleni but under other municipalities and a private company.
Mathe named Lephalale Local Municipality, Mogalakwena Local Municipality and the City of uMhlathuze among the entities appearing in that strand of the inquiry.
The exact legal relationship between those vehicles, the Emfuleni contract and the entities under whose names they were registered has not yet been fully tested in court.
Investigators are continuing to trace vehicles and financial transactions.
The case forms part of a broader period of law-enforcement activity around Emfuleni.
In a separate investigation, municipal employees and outside service providers have been arrested over an alleged illegal electricity-reconnection network.
Police allege that the electricity scheme caused millions of rand in losses to the municipality.
An eighth suspect, described by police as the suspected organiser of that network, was also due in court on Monday.
The electricity and fleet-tender cases are separate prosecutions.
Their simultaneous emergence is nevertheless politically important because they concern core operations inside an already financially distressed municipality.
Emfuleni has experienced prolonged financial and service-delivery problems involving electricity, water, sewage infrastructure and municipal debt.
It has also been subject to provincial and national government intervention.
Those difficulties are expected to feature prominently in campaigning ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
The municipality is currently governed by the ANC, while opposition parties including the DA, EFF, ActionSA and newer political movements are seeking to expand their representation.
The DA has nominated Kingsol Chabalala as its mayoral candidate, while Afrika Mayibuye has selected Vincent Jones.
The criminal investigations do not establish responsibility on the part of the ANC or any political party.
They concern specific officials, suppliers and individuals whose conduct must be determined through criminal proceedings.
Their electoral significance instead lies in the broader questions they raise about municipal financial controls, procurement, infrastructure and accountability.
Malema will remain in custody until his bail hearing on 14 September.
Police say their investigation remains active and have not ruled out additional arrests.
Further developments involving the vehicles traced to other municipalities, any additional suspects or evidence connecting procurement investigations to Rantsofu’s murder would materially deepen the case.
