By Jonathan Erasmus
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expanded a corruption investigation into eThekwini Municipality’s sprawling security operation. Six contracts spanning nearly 23 years of procurement are now under the microscope as the city budgets hundreds of millions of rand for private guards and VIP protection.
The provision of security to the city has for more than a decade been viewed by opposition parties within the municipality as a haven for corruption.
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The amended proclamation, published in the Government Gazette on Friday, gives the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) powers to probe the procurement and payment of security and VIP protection services under contracts CMS 0031, 1C 15104, 1C 18709, 1C 20359, 1X 31747 and 1C 29300.
It also covers extensions and variations to those contracts and any related payments.
The unit said on Monday: “The SIU investigation will determine whether the procurement processes followed were fair, competitive, transparent, equitable and cost -effective, and whether irregular expenditure was incurred.”
The amendment expands significantly on an investigation first authorised by Ramaphosa in November 2024.
That original proclamation covered alleged wrongdoing dating from 1 January 2004 to 22 November 2024. The latest proclamation extends the period for investigation to the publication of the amendment on Friday.
Investigators must now follow the money across more than two decades of eThekwini security procurement. And there is plenty of money at stake.
The municipality’s adopted 2026/27 Medium-Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework sets aside R318 million for “external security & VIP guards” under community services and public safety.
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The budget does not distinguish how much of that amount pays for the guarding of municipal buildings and infrastructure and how much is spent protecting councillors and officials.
The Security Management Unit is responsible for both functions – outsourced guarding of municipal assets and close protection for politicians and officials.
Separately, the city’s 2025/26 adjustment budget recorded substantial additional metro police overtime requirements, specifically identifying “VIP protection for councillors and officials” among the issues driving overtime, together with festive-season policing, protests, land invasions and other duties.
The municipality’s audited financial statements for the year to June 2025 record bodyguards as an in-kind benefit for the mayor, deputy mayor, speaker and executive committee members. The mayor and deputy mayor each had two full-time bodyguards, according to the statements.
The security procurement now before the SIU has a long and troubled history.
An amaBhungane investigation published in 2017 found that contract CMS 0031 had effectively been rolled over repeatedly for about a decade while eight incumbent security companies continued guarding municipal sites.
At the time, the contracts were costing the municipality about R50 million a month, according to a report by the city’s Security Management Unit obtained by amaBhungane.
AmaBhungane reported that the contract had been extended at least eight times and that, in 2017, the municipality was again using emergency procurement provisions to keep the existing companies in place.
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The companies were Enforce Security, Vusa-Isizwe Security, Sharks Protection Services, Royal Security, Secureco Metsu, iMvula Quality Protection, Khuselani Security and Risk Management and Isidingo Security Services.
In November 2017, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court set aside a new eThekwini security tender and ordered the city to run the procurement process again.
The existing security firms were allowed to remain in place in the interim.
Almost nine years later, a February 2026 High Court ruling revealed just how long that “interim” arrangement had endured.
Judge Mahendra Chetty recorded that it was common cause that eThekwini had continued using the incumbent providers for “almost eight years” after the 2017 order as successive efforts to conclude new security contracts became mired in disputes.
The judgement said the municipality had by late 2025 concluded that the cost of its security arrangements had become “unsustainable” and sought to revisit the rates it was paying providers.
The court dispute arose after security companies challenged the municipality’s attempt to revert to rates applicable in September 2017.
The ruling was an interim one. It preserved the status quo, with the municipality directed to keep paying the current rates, while the underlying question – how the 2017 order should be interpreted, and whether rates should be pegged to September 2017 levels – was referred to a full opposed hearing set down for 12 June 2026.
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The SIU investigation is not confined to ageing contracts.
One of the tenders specifically added to the investigation, 1C-29300, was advertised only last year and covers armed and unarmed guarding, national key point security, guard dogs and dog handlers for 36 months.
The municipality simultaneously advertised a separate tender, 1C-29305, specifically for armed VIP close-protection officers for 36 months. That tender is not one of the six contract numbers listed in the amended proclamation.
Opposition parties have for years challenged the city’s spending on political protection.
In October 2025, ActionSA KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said more than 60 councillors were receiving bodyguards and municipal vehicles and claimed the cost of councillor protection had climbed above R100 million a year, excluding vehicles.
ActionSA also said the metro police overtime bill had already exceeded R37 million at the time and argued that officers were being pulled away from normal policing to protect politicians.
“This reckless expenditure is an insult to the ratepayers of eThekwini,” Mncwango said in an official statement.
In 2021, then Democratic Alliance eThekwini caucus leader Nicole Graham said the city had disclosed spending R70 million on councillor security over a three-month period. She accused the metro of providing some protection before SAPS threat assessments had been completed.
“eThekwini’s public purse cannot afford this reckless spending,” Graham said at the time, calling for threat assessments to be “properly conducted” and protection spending reduced.
The current national rules provide that senior municipal office bearers may receive bodyguards, while other councillors should receive personal security subject to a SAPS threat and risk assessment.
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