Finance Minister Tito Mboweni
"What kind of people are these criminals?"
This was a line from one of three late-night tweets by Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni on Sunday evening about corruption involving Covid-19 tenders.
The minister took to Twitter on Sunday evening to tweet about the theft of funds, a few days after President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed "very very severe consequences" for corruption involving Covid-19 relief funds.
In his address on Thursday evening, the president said fraud and corruption remain a concern even with the money being safeguarded by measures put in place by the Auditor-General.
"What concerns me, and what concerns all South Africans, is those instances where funds are stolen and misused – where goods we have to procure are diverted, or food parcels are stolen from needy households," he said.
Mboweni, meanwhile, tweeted on Sunday evening that a tender is an "ethical contract and not a blank cheque to deceive and steal".
He did not provide any more information about what he meant by "consequences".
Mboweni's tweets come amid concerns over corruption involving tenders for Covid-19 relief.
Last week, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala stated at a media briefing that nearly R30-million had been uncovered in irregular expenditure for personal protective equipment and blankets by the province’s social development department.