The Special Investigating Unit and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks, executed a search and seizure operation at the Centurion headquarters of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday.
The raid was authorized under a search warrant issued by the Special Tribunal on 17 September 2026, targeting evidence in a disputed R130 million training initiative funded by the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The contract was commissioned to deliver accredited security and digital training across all nine provinces to 7,071 learners, encompassing Election Observer Training, End-User Computing, and PSIRA Grade E to C certifications.
President Cyril Ramaphosa officially authorized the forensic probe under Proclamation 316 of 2026 on 3 June 2026, directing the SIU to investigate allegations of serious maladministration, corruption, and financial losses within the regulatory body. Forensic investigators described the physical search and seizure as a measure of last resort after regulatory leadership repeatedly failed to supply complete project files, delivering records that deliberately omitted a full year of primary training documentation.
Armed with the judicial warrant, investigators confiscated mobile phones, laptop computers, desktop hard drives, and physical file registers from executive offices to prevent further tampering with documentary evidence. The Unemployment Insurance Fund has publicly welcomed the intervention, with Acting Commissioner Thulani Tshefuta confirming that the fund will cooperate with law enforcement to establish whether any training was delivered before public funds were disbursed.
Under the Special Investigating Units and Special Tribunals Act 74 of 1996, the SIU is empowered to investigate corruption and maladministration in state organs and recover public funds through civil litigation. The Special Tribunal possesses civil court status capable of issuing search-and-seizure warrants, interdicting transactions, and setting aside unlawful state contracts. The Unemployment Insurance Fund is established under the Unemployment Insurance Act 63 of 2001 to provide short-term income protection to workers and fund active labor market programs. When training contracts fail to verify learner attendance and competency certifications, the expenditure constitutes irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure under the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999.
If you are an employed South African, you contribute 1% of your monthly gross salary to the UIF, matched by a 1% employer contribution, intended to protect your family against sudden retrenchment or illness. When R130 million is diverted into unverified training programs, public safety nets are depleted and unemployed youth are robbed of accredited job market qualifications. If you were registered as a learner under the PSIRA-UIF skills development program and never received training or certification, your identity details may have been used to sign off fraudulent state invoices.
* Which officials at the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Department of Employment and Labour approved R130 million in payments without verified learner roll-call registers?
* Who ordered the withholding or destruction of the missing year of procurement and training documentation at PSIRA headquarters?
* Will the SIU secure preservation orders through the Special Tribunal to freeze the bank accounts of private training contractors before the R130 million is laundered?