Today, Thursday, 24 July 2025, the Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Shadow MEC for Roads and Logistics, Evert Du Plessis MPL, will be laying charges against the former Gauteng Department’s Head of Transport (HOD), Ronald Swartz.
Swartz served as the HOD for the department from April 2013 until March 2019. During his tenure, there were copious amounts of irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure when it came to the payment of bus subsidies to bus companies in the province.
A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that irregular expenditure occurred during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 financial years. During this time, over R400 million was lost to the bus subsidies programme.
Furthermore, during the 2015/2016 financial year, fruitless and wasteful expenditure of over R70 million occurred.
None of the money lost to fruitless and wasteful expenditure has been recovered. This is unacceptable and sends the message that wasting public funds can go unpunished.
There will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.
Details of the event are as follows:
Date: 24 July 2025
Time: 10:00
Venue: Johannesburg Central Police Station