Pule Mabe: Ex-ANC spokesperson charged with fraud in South Africa

However, he told local media he was stepping down from the ANC’s executive committee, but “not because he is guilty”.

Mabe and his wife appeared in court after handing themselves into South Africa’s elite police unit, the Hawks.

Five other defendants – including two executives from Guateng’s provinicial government – also appeared at the court, in Ekurhuleni, a municipality just east of the city of Johannesburg.

All seven individuals were awarded bail.

The contract in question stipulated that Enviro-Mobi should receive upfront payments and that money should only be handed to the company after a portion of its work was completed, police spokesperson Thandi Mbambo said.

However, the Hawks’ investigation found that Gauteng’s Department of Agriculture paid Enviro-Mobi 25 million rand for 200 vehicles, even though the goods were “still in the possession of the service provider”.

It is not the first time Mabe, who served as the ANC’s spokesperson from 2018 to 2023, has been accused of corruption.

Along with two others, he was arrested in 2013 over allegations he had defrauded the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). The trio were later cleared of all charges.

And in 2017 Mabe was fined after a parliamentary committee found that he had benefited from a contract with the state-owned rail company.