The South African town that paid R145,000 for three laptops

The uPhongola Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal is facing backlash for spending R145,650 on three HP ProBook 450 G10 laptops, which, depending on their specs, are valued at between R16,700 and R26,700.

An invoice leaked to News24 shows that the municipality’s chief financial officer and supply chain manager authorised the purchase from a company called Izikoleyhu.

Another company, Mngunikazi Construction Projects, quoted R159,000 for the three laptops. Neither Izikoleyhu nor Mngunikazi Construction could be reached for comment.

Izikoleyho landed the tender after scoring 100% during the procurement process. The municipality published the request for quotation on 6 February 2025, and it was closed a week later.

An anonymous insider raised concerns over the municipality’s senior officials approving the transaction.

“We are tired of corruption in this municipality. There are many shady dealings here,” they said.

The total price of R145,650 for the three laptops works out to R48,550 each.

Evetech’s listing for the HP ProBook 450 G10 series shows that the top-specced model, which packs 64GB of DDR4 RAM and 4TB of SSD storage, costs R30,999 — R17,551 less than the price the municipality paid.

According to HP’s South African website, the laptop’s prices start at R16,699 and top out at R26,700. However, it doesn’t list specifications as high as the ones in Evetech’s catalogue.

Speaking to 702, Professor Kagiso Pooe, a public policy specialist at the Wits School of Governance, said the transaction likely would have gone under the radar because it was under a specific threshold.

“If you look at this particular case, the reason why I think it went a bit low is usually, with the Municipal Financial Act, they try to look for transactions that go over R200,000, R300,000,” he said.

“It’s almost likely saying: if you really did want to get away with this, they pitched the right number.”

Pooe added that the incident would likely not have been spotted if it hadn’t been for whistleblowers raising the alarm.

Mpumalanga Education Department pays R2 million for 22 laptops

In mid-April 2024, Mpumalanga Education MEC Landulile Dlamini revealed that the province’s Department of Education spent R2 million to procure laptops for 22 employees.

She said the new laptops cost R91,482.50 each. However, the total transaction amounts to R2,020,883.45, which works out to R91,858.34 per laptop — a R375.84 discrepancy.

Dlamini was also unable to immediately answer questions about the laptops’ brands and installed software, but promised to do so in writing.

However, she revealed that the computers were procured for office-based staff and school principals.

This disclosure was in response to allegations that the department had overlooked Project Management Unit (PMU) guidelines when procuring the machines.

She indicated that the high cost of the laptops may have been due to their procurement through the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).

“The department did not overlook PMU processes. These materials are not classified as LTSM — that is, learner-teacher support material — and thus should be procured through the SITA contract,” said Dlamini.

“The beneficiaries are administrators and school managers, who use these for administration processes and not for teaching and learning.”

However, Sita explained that it offers stakeholders like the Mpumalanga Education Department a panel of suppliers to choose from. It welcomed a probe into whether the procurement was above board.

In early May 2025, Mpumalanga Premier Mandla Ndlovu highlighted several irregularities in the department’s procurement of the laptops, adding that implicated officials will be disciplined.

In a media briefing, Ndlovu revealed that the department had accepted laptops of an inferior quality to those specified in the tender and could have been purchased for far less.

“The department accepted the delivery of laptops that did not match the specifications of the tender,” he said.

“Instead, the department procured laptops of similar specifications, which could have been procured for a lesser amount if due diligence had been applied.”

The Premier said the advertised tender specifics didn’t match those that the bid adjudication committee approved.

“The department officials irregularly specified the brand of laptops instead of the functionality required, resulting in only specific suppliers responding to the request for quotation,” Ndlovu said.

“This was advertised within the limited locality of Mbombela despite the requirement that the scope be expanded to suppliers of all brands.”

Ndlovu’s spokesperson, George Mthethwa, said more than eight department officials have been implicated in the irregular tender, and all of them will face disciplinary action.

“The government is taking significant steps to recover the money, which could have been used to improve the lives of communities in Mpumalanga,” said Mthethwa.

“The Premier has said that disciplinary action will be instituted against the implicated officials, including the head of department, in line with the applicable legislation.”