One of the front page stories on the Sunday Times Yesterday has their headline graft turns municipalities into South African killing fields.

At least one hundred and forty eight local government officials have been murdered in South Africa since twenty eighteen, attacks ramping up in the past four years.

National government officials also under attack.

But research by something I hadn't heard of, global crisis mapping initiative called Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, shows that municipal officials in South Africa are the ones who are most at risk.

The deaths are predominantly linked to corruption, and the people who are being killed think Babta dio Karan are people who are blowing the whistle on corruption or people who are investigating that corruption.

And a story in this field is on News twenty fourth The Moment written by Segonardi Manchanca.

A forensic auditor gunned down in broad daylight.

Another auditor murdered months before while probing the same contracts, a third narrowly escaping an attempted hit.

So gonad a good Afternoon, John Pod after Moon and good after mode to the listeners.

These criminals are increasingly brazen in their attempts to shut down investigations into their crimes, aren't they absolutely?

I mean you only need to look at the vehicles that they were driving when they were doing the shooting.

Normally people would be would want to get away in a very speedy vehtle as soon as possible.

But someone just goes commits such a brazen maader using a theater vanda which I do not wait for speed, certainly for reliability I do, ANDNDY I tend I do not wait for speed also for reliability I do.

So it appears they never worry about getting caught.

They just want to shoot the people and get on with it.

A little to tell a little bit more about the waste scandal in Corolini, four billion rounds worth of wasted money which the all three forensic forensic investigators involved, two murdered, one missing being murdered.

What are they investigating?

John?

If I may just take the liberty to give contact to who these people are, Mister macfoe.

Pomafolly was made on the thirtieth of June twenty twenty five while driving in Campton Park.

He was the head of forensic auditing at the AGROULNI municipality.

He was on the job for three months.

Semnikoio Mapini was an evaluator and auditor in the forensics department at Agurulini.

He was murdered on the eighth of December twenty twenty three.

A person who would be their boss, the municipality's chief financial officer, was shot and survived on the thirteenth of September twenty twenty three.

This is three months before mister macpinney.

So these are auditors and investigators in the city's finance department and they were investigating tenders and contracts that way had been awarded by the municipality over the years.

The biggest of those contracts are to supply mobile toilets, those toilets that you will find on a spatter camp.

As you know, spader camps are popping up everywhere.

It's big business for politically connected people because they have to supply those people with some sort of sanitation services.

And when there are no fixed municipal services, the mobile toilets rules do the water tanks carrying mobile water to the communities also get lined up.

You also have had, in the case of Agurulni Municipality, tenders for the water and prepaid meter vending.

Those all of them cost the municipality about four billion rand A.

Yeah, and these are the contracts all these three minds that have been shot to unfortunately have been mad at we're working on at the time of their attacks.

Is you know, I wouldn't go so far, Signadia is as to say that we're we're making meaningful progress in tackling corruption at governmental level.

But ESCOM has become, I think, a less corrupt place.

There there is work to uncover and bring to a hold some of the huge corruption at a transnet and so on, but it really does appear.

And your colleague Kunita Hunter has a piece on News twenty four at the moment, but there is no such thing as a better comrade, you know.

And she details with sort of chilling precision, how these things start small and grow and grow and grow, and how corruption becomes utterly systemically entrenched in municipals governance.

It's really scary the degree to which governance is absent at so many small and medium sized and large municipalities across the country because they are seen as cash extraction pits rather than engines of delivery.

Absolutely even scarier is the absence of law enforcement because as I have stated, the people, these tenopreneers who will use the battle of a gun to achieve what they want, they have now become so involvant because there has been no arrest, there has been no convictions and stuff.

So it's becoming scarier every day working in the government where your job might involve asking questions about contracts that are awarded to certain people or in the manner that they are awarded.

It's getting heavier and heavier in the public life of South Africa to be working in that kind of.

Up and is it I mean the absence of law enforcement.

You know, we had Chantla mak Nazi standing up several Sundays going on and making the allegations he made and the parliamentary inquiry starts tomorrow and supposedly the Mudlanga Judicial Commission of Inquiry is under way.

And one of the things he was saying was that dockets are taken away because when police do try to investigate people in politics and in the police take that power away from them, where does the responsibility lie for the beginning of a fight back against this.

John One of the things you have met one of the unfortunates thatccums.

Since you have made you have mentioned what was the matter of babitatio current, I need to remind the listener that Timbitha Hospital is within a guruleni.

Yes it is not administered by the municipality, but it is within a groulini and one of the alleged master minds or the biggest winners of the contract there in that municipality, which were also flagged by Babeter before she was brutally mad at, was one of us Kat Mclala, who was mentioned by mister by General Cantum Khanazzi as one of the organized criminals that have politicians and he specifically mentioned the suspend the the well.

I don't know if Kuno has been suspended the minister sent on Kunu, he said.

Tancham Kannazi said that gentleman Kat Maclala, an amusing gentlemen very loosely, was actually doing a strong relationship with the minister.

So there is a very strong neccess between politicians at all levels.

It would appear because the same mister Kat Maclala has been linked to various alleged crimes and acts of corruption in the various municipalities including a Guruleni amongst others.

And as I have said, the hospital in question Whereba pitter Dyocurran raised issues about mister Mattlala, was linked there.

So it does not appear that there is a really very safe space for people who do the kind of work.

The people that I have written about did so.

You know, a man chance, I have News twenty four.

Thank you very much.

Indeed,