Seven suspects – including local government officials and a former African Nation Congress (ANC) spokesperson – have been charged with fraud in a South African court.

The defendants appeared in court following an investigation into a 27 million rand (£1.2m; $1.6m) government tender.

The investigation found that five years ago the provincial government in Gauteng signed a contract with a company named Enviro-Mobi for waste management services.

Enviro-Mobi did not disclose that it had links to ex-ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe, who was an MP at the time, a police statement said.

Mabe and the others were not asked to enter pleas.

However, he told local media he was stepping down from the ANC’s executive committee, but “not because he is guilty”.

Mabe and his wife appeared in court after handing themselves into South Africa’s elite police unit, the Hawks.

Five other defendants – including two executives from Guateng’s provinicial government – also appeared at the court, in Ekurhuleni, a municipality just east of the city of Johannesburg.

All seven individuals were awarded bail.

The contract in question stipulated that Enviro-Mobi should receive upfront payments and that money should only be handed to the company after a portion of its work was completed, police spokesperson Thandi Mbambo said.

However, the Hawks’ investigation found that Gauteng’s Department of Agriculture paid Enviro-Mobi 25 million rand for 200 vehicles, even though the goods were “still in the possession of the service provider”.

It is not the first time Mabe, who served as the ANC’s spokesperson from 2018 to 2023, has been accused of corruption.

Along with two others, he was arrested in 2013 over allegations he had defrauded the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa). The trio were later cleared of all charges.

And in 2017 Mabe was fined after a parliamentary committee found that he had benefited from a contract with the state-owned rail company.

• Education reform row threatens South Africa unity government
• Joy and relief as South Africa manages to keep its lights on
• Why South Africans are flocking to a Chinese hospital ship

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica