Further arrests for wide-scale Covid-19 procurement corruption will follow on Thursday, the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI or Hawks) General Godfrey Lebeya told MPs on Tuesday.

"The next arrests will take place on Thursday," Lebeya told Parliament's watchdog Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in a briefing by criminal justice structures on the progress made in bringing to book those who have been exploiting the state's emergency procurement drive during the pandemic.

Lebeya gave no further detail about the particular case. But he told the committee that the Fusion Centre, which was formed a few months ago as an interface for the country's top law enforcement agencies, was probing 174 cases of suspected corruption, the vast majority in Gauteng.

So far, the investigations have seen 64 bank accounts frozen and there were 40 case dockets in progress, with six having been placed on the court roll.

Advocate Rodney de Kock from the National Prosecuting Authority added that 12 more cases were expected to be enrolled in the next three months.

The sheer volume of potential wrongdoing was underscored by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) confirming it was investigating allegations surrounding R10.5-billion, or 67%, of the total of R15.6-billion the government spent on emergency procurement for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other material between April and August to confront the health crisis.

Gauteng outstripped other provinces with R4.339-billion worth of contracts under investigation, followed by the Eastern Cape with R1.862-billion.

However, SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi said the numbers were changing constantly as whistle-blowers brought more allegations to the attention of the SIU, and the agency would impose no cut-off point for tip-offs.

Mothibi said so far contracts with a total monetary value of R233-million were before the Special Tribunal with a view to nullifying the deals and recovering the funds.

This included the SIU's pursuit of R38-million in 40 frozen bank accounts relating to irregularities in PPE procurement by the Gauteng Department of Health. The funds include money flows around the accounts of Royal Bhaca, the company of the spouse of former presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko.

That matter has been postponed to November 20 and 21.

Mothibi noted that the SIU had already reaped success in terms of recovering money from contractors taken to the Special Tribunal, including by the two contractors who won the inflated tender to reinforce the Beitbridge border fence with Zimbabwe in the early days of the pandemic.

He made a plea for legislative changes in the wake of the scandal to stop politically exposed persons from doing business with the state, given the extent to which some had benefited from dubious Covid-19 deals.

"Going forward there could be consideration for legislative changes," he said, warning that if not, the trend was likely to continue.

It is a thorny subject for the ruling ANC, which has so far merely managed to resolve to look into the issue further.

The briefing gave some indication that ill-gotten funds in the various PPE scandals may have been moved offshore as the Financial Intelligence Centre's (FIC) executive director for analysis, Mike Masiapato, said: "We want to retrieve the billions that have left South Africa. We are leading a project in retrieving the assets that are offshore."

He stressed that an agreement with banks that allowed the FIC to secure the freezing of accounts for 10 days had proven critical as it gave the SIU, Hawks and the Asset Forfeiture Unit time to prepare court papers and prevented suspects from shifting the funds.

Scopa chairman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the level of corruption described by the law-enforcement agencies in his eyes constituted a crime against humanity in that it compounded poverty and inequality during a health crisis.

"Ultimately, what we have heard today is clearly grand looting of the highest order at a time of crisis."

Mothibi, Lebeya and National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi used the briefing to reiterate pleas for more funding, cautioning that investigations would be curtailed if their budgets were cut.

"I cannot over-emphasise how crucial it is for us to have the budget we need," Batohi said of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) efforts to rebuild itself after years of crisis.

Should there be any cuts to its current R4.5-billion budget, the NPA would not be able to pay staff it recently recruited in the coming years, she said.

The warning comes roughly a week ahead of the tabling of the country’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement.