cancel the design contract. Arrests Despite their wrongdoings being widely reported, Lefika enjoyed political protection by the provincial ANC under the leadership of premier David Mabuza and the Jacob Zuma-faction who reportedly suppressed the powerful evidence against Lefika and blocked legal prosecution against them for three years. On 15 August 2012, all three Lefika directors were arrested for tender fraud related to the stadium's design contract by the Special Investigations Unit, known as the Hawks, an independent national investigations unit. All three were released on bail and returned to court on 15 October 2012. Chris Grib was out of the country when Jimmy Mohlala was murdered and when Lefika forged a document on a Municipal letter head used to apply for a R1 million overdraft from Nedbank so he was expected to testify against his co-directors Motaung and Theledi under a plea deal for a lesser sentence. The case was heard but charges later dropped. In January 2016 the case was re-investigated and the reinstatement of charges was being considered by the National Prosecuting Authority however nothing came of this. By July 2016 the case was struck off the roll due to a lack of evidence among talk of Bobby Motaung intimidating witnesses from testifying. In November 2017 the National Prosecuting Authority announced that the fraud case would no longer be pursued for lack of evidence. The dropping of charges were reportedly due to Zuma-faction members within the National Prosecuting Authority suppressing the evidence. Municipality placed under Administration Corruption related to general municipal mismanagement and the construction of the stadium resulted in the provincial government taking over the running of the municipality and construction management. The Municipality was placed under administration in June 2007. When the Mbombela Municipality was reinstated 5 months later, the outspoken new mayor Lassie Chiwayo and council officials reportedly received death threats, warning them to remain silent about the evidence of corruption. Lowest cost new 2010 stadium Although the stadium is widely known for corruption it is ironic that the stadium became a model in terms of the lowest total cost. Mbombela Stadium stands out as being the lowest-cost new 2010 stadium by quite a large margin and the highest ratio of seats under roof. Corruption was reported about other World Cup-related contracts, however the stadium construction itself proceeded without any controversy. Attempted manipulation of stadium construction sub-contracts by Lefika was successfully blocked by principled officials