eMadlangeni is one of KwaZulu-Natal's smallest municipalities, seated at Utrecht in the Amajuba District. In 2019 its council was weighing a shopping-mall development. According to the Hawks, on 10 July 2019 Mayor Lindile Mhlungu introduced a service provider to present a feasibility study for the mall and instructed Municipal Manager Musawenkosi Thwala to appoint it, bypassing supply-chain management. The provider invoiced R2,014,250; a purchase order was generated and the full amount paid. No feasibility study was ever delivered.
The Hawks' Durban Serious Corruption Investigation unit arrested Mhlungu (42) and Thwala (52) on 21 July 2026. They appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court on 22 July on charges of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act, and were released on bail of R10,000 and R2,000. On 2 September 2026 former CFO Sanelisiwe Mhlophe and company director Hans Michael Dlamini were arrested. KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Francois Rodgers publicly commended the arrests: "Every rand lost through corruption is a rand taken away from service delivery and community development."
The amount is small by the archive's standards. The case is recorded because the entire executive of a municipality — mayor, accounting officer and CFO — stands accused of a single act of procurement fraud, and because it took seven years to reach a courtroom. Charges are untested; all accused are presumed innocent.