When she moved from a cramped room in a boardinghouse to her very own bungalow on a speck of land here last year, Jeanette Munyai became one of the millions of South Africans given a decent home by an ambitious government program inaugurated at the end of apartheid. House-proud for the first time in her life, she immediately planted corn, pumpkins and tomatoes on a patch of her yard. Only two things were missing: running water and electricity. “They told us water and light was coming, but we are still using the bush as a toilet,” she said. “We are waiting.”
Ms. Munyai and her neighbors are unlikely to get water or electricity any time soon. The provincial government is broke, and the dry pipes and powerless plugs have for her and many others come to symbolize the heavy toll graft and cronyism have taken in this impoverished northern province.
Corruption has long bedeviled South Africa, but the crisis here in Limpopo Province has pushed the common practice of doling out overstuffed government contracts to people with friends in high places to its logical conclusion: bankruptcy. Provincial officials overspent their budget by an estimated $250 million, much of it on questionable — or blatantly fraudulent — government payments and contracts with private businesses enjoying close ties to the politicians leading the province. “There is evidence emerging that some of these service providers are politically connected, and many of them may have gotten those tenders in dubious kinds of ways,” said Kenneth Brown, deputy director general in the Treasury Department.
Dan Sebabi, leader of Limpopo’s branch of Cosatu, the powerful coalition of trade unions that is allied with the governing African National Congress, put it more bluntly. “You have leaders who are politicians by day, businessmen by night,” he said. Graft and wasteful spending have sapped the government’s ability to tackle inequality. Only 3 of 39 government departments were pronounced clean in audits by South Africa’s auditor general last year. Only 7 of 237 cities passed muster the year before. “We thought that South Africa could be different from the rest of the countries that came before us on the African continent,” said Gilbert Kganyago, leader of Limpopo’s branch of the South African Communist Party. “But at the rate that things are happening, we have actually caught up to the African scenario quite more quickly than we might have thought.”
A recent report by the auditor general found that in the last fiscal year, government officials and their relatives won $15 million in contracts for work with the Defense Department, the Tax Service and the Department of Home Affairs, among others. And that does not come close to accounting for the many millions of dollars quietly awarded to friends and other associates, experts note.
Almost from the moment it was elected to govern in 1994 after decades of fighting to end apartheid, the A.N.C. has struggled with allegations of graft. Jacob Zuma, the current president, took office only after a bevy of corruption charges against him were dismissed amid accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. But corruption has become so entrenched that it is eating away at the nation’s soul, said Zwelinzima Vavi, secretary general of Cosatu, in a recent speech to announce the formation of an antigraft organization, Corruption Watch. “We are moving towards a society in which the morality of our revolutionary movement — selflessness, service to the people and caring for the poor and vulnerable — is being threatened,” Mr. Vavi said. “If we do nothing it will be swept away by a tidal wave of a culture of individualism, a ‘me first’ attitude and to hell with everyone else. Some argue that we are already a society where only the fittest survive and dog eats dog.”
Corruption is a particularly serious problem in provincial governments, which are responsible for delivering many of the services needed by the poor. Many powerful regional politicians use their offices to enrich their friends, forming a coterie of wealthy elites reminiscent of the tribal chieftains the apartheid government used to administer the tiny, nominally independent bantustans where blacks were forced to live.
Limpopo has the nation’s second-highest proportion of people living in poverty — 62 percent, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations. The average unemployment rate for the province is 40 percent, but it is much higher for blacks and young people. Signs of waste and fraud are everywhere. Pipes that were supposed to bring clean drinking water to parched, impoverished communities were laid improperly and burst, requiring the whole job to be done again, according to local officials. Tiny government houses like the one in which Ms. Munyai lives are crumbling only months after being built. Since she has no water, she uses her toilet as a storage closet and has to walk several blocks to a shared pump several times a day. Roads paved a year ago are already covered with potholes. “This road is not more than two years old,” said Geoffrey Tshibvumo, a local councilor from the Congress of the People, a party that broke away from the A.N.C., as he bounced along a rural road in the province one afternoon. “They spent millions on it, and it is already spoiled.”
The crisis here has been brewing for some time. Late last year, the province ran out of money and asked the central government to lend it about $130 million. But the central government balked at handing over such a large sum without first taking a close look at the province’s books. A quick survey of its accounts showed that the state treasury was in chaos. State officials had made $360 million in unauthorized payments, and millions of dollars’ worth of contracts had been awarded without competitive bidding, the central treasury said.
The Education Department had 2,400 more teachers on its payroll than it was budgeted for, and 200 “ghost” teachers, who drew salaries but did not actually exist. The department had overspent its budget by almost $40 million even before ordering textbooks and other supplies for the coming school year. In the Health Department, more than $50 million worth of goods had been improperly ordered, leaving almost nothing for salaries for government nurses and doctors. Public works contracts showed evidence that they had been manipulated, the Treasury Department said, to increase the cost of projects — and presumably the profits of the contractors. Consulting fees ate up a quarter of the infrastructure budget.
Big contracts tended to go to a small handful of companies, many of them run by close associates of the province’s top politicians, according to provincial government documents. Some officials had been warning that the province was headed for a crisis. One whistle-blower in the Health Department sent a memo to a senior official in February 2011 outlining major problems with a contract for medical supplies. The prices for bandages and dressings had been inflated, the whistle-blower said, and the department could not possibly use the quantities ordered.
In addition, officials ordered more than $30 million worth of items in the last days of the fiscal year, most of it “labels and forms that are not critical or lifesaving drugs,” according to the memo. Prices for other items were wildly inflated. The national attention to the crisis in Limpopo is in no small part a reflection of the politics of the province. It is the home of Julius Malema, the polarizing leader of the A.N.C.’s youth league, who was suspended from the party for five years for his incendiary remarks and harsh stance against the president, Mr. Zuma. Limpopo’s provincial leader, Cassel Mathale, is a close political ally of Mr. Malema.
But many other provinces face a lesser version of the same crisis, analysts say. “It is not unique to Limpopo — it is all over the country,” said Moeletsi Mbeki, a political analyst and businessman. “It is a general form of self-enrichment by the politically connected.”
Mr. Brown, the deputy director general at the treasury, said that politics played no part in the decision to intervene in Limpopo. The crisis threatened the country’s financial reputation. “If you are sitting in New York and you are an investor in South Africa and you see a provincial government that cannot pay its teachers and nurses,” he said, “what does that tell you about South Africa?”
Source: New York Times
Showing posts with label Advance-fee fraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advance-fee fraud. Show all posts
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Murder Inc in Mbombela
Inside Mpumalanga hit squads: Special report by Charles Molele and Mzilikazi Wa Afrika: ANC boss used to have opponents shot, but switched to poison last year.
A 25-year-old contract killer has accused an influential ANC leader in Mpumalanga of offering him R100000 and a cushy government job if he poisoned government officials who were blocking access to tenders linked to the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The ANC boss, whose name is known to the Sunday Times, was fingered by more than a dozen other sources interviewed during a three-week investigation into the killings of at least a dozen senior politicians in Mpumalanga starting in 1998. The would-be assassin said he had been given the poison and had been ready to do the job, but had pulled out after a disagreement with his "client" over an advance fee. Though his three intended victims are still alive, six officials were murdered or died in suspicious circumstances in Mpumalanga last year alone and another has been killed this year. Local party leaders and officials who spoke to the Sunday Times mentioned a "hit list" of other proposed victims and said they were living in fear.
The Sunday Times has been given the full name of a Mozambican gangster known as "Josh" and told that he was responsible for the murder in January 2009 of Mbombela (Nelspruit) council speaker Jimmy Mohlala. "Josh" agreed to speak to our reporters in Mozambique, but then changed his mind. ANC national spokesman Jackson Mthembu - the former speaker of the Mpumalanga legislature - said the ruling party was aware of the alleged hit list and had sent a task team to investigate those responsible for the killings of its members in the province.
The Sunday Times investigation took reporters to sources in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Mozambique. Those interviewed included senior ANC members, municipal officials and National Intelligence Agency sources, as well as the province's former ANC Youth League leader, James Nkambule, and Mpu-malanga Democratic Alliance leader Anthony Benadie The Sunday Times has given details of the plot to police Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi and Mpumalanga's deputy provincial commissioner, Rex Machabi. They said the would-be killer would be interviewed soon.
The assassin said many people lived in fear of the ANC leader he had named. "This politician must be exposed and expelled from the ANC in order to stop his reign of terror in Mpumalanga. I am scared of him. Even those in the higher echelons are scared of him because he is too dangerous. I don't want to go on killing innocent people," he said. However, he did not admit to any killings. A former ANC regional leader, Alfred Monareng, said the ANC boss and his cabal used to have their opponents shot, but had switched to poison last year. He said the assassin interviewed by the Sunday Times had confessed to him that he had planned to spike a bottle of Johnny Walker whisky on Christmas Eve while drinking with him at his home in White River, where he works as a senior waste manager in the Mbombela municipality. "He told me he was about to poison me, but decided not to," said Monareng. "The motive behind the plot to kill me is apparently to force me to vacate my post in order to make way for a preferred Samwu (municipal workers' union) candidate who is known to me. They cannot find any case of misconduct, irregularities or corrupt activity, so they have resorted to poisoning me," he said.
Monareng said he had not believed the confession, but then discovered that other suspicious deaths, including that of his brother, could have been as a result of poison. "We now suspect that my brother, Themba (regional secretary), Mthandazo Ngobeni (chairman of the ANC Youth League), Vusi Sibiya (regional secretary), Lucas Shongwe (regional secretary) and the fiery ANC member Michael Sifunda were allegedly poisoned, as they showed similar symptoms before they died." They all vomited a white foam before dying.
Nelspruit mayor Lassy Chiwayo, whose name is on the hit list, said he was living in fear after receiving death threats on his cellphone. He has sent a report to ANC headquarters at Luthuli House about his victimisation. "I have been told I will go back home in a coffin," said Chiwayo. Deputy mayor Nackie Ndlovu said she had been told of plans to poison her. "I fear for my life and cannot trust anyone. There have been so many killings in Mpumalanga. We are pleading with the ANC to do something because we are really not safe any more," she said. At least 12 local leaders have been murdered or have died in suspicious circumstances in Mpumalanga since 1998. Police say they are investigating, but no one has been arrested.
People who spoke to the Sunday Times said they were afraid to give information to police because they did not know which faction of the party the law enforcement agents supported. DA provincial leader Benadie slammed Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza for his silence on the deaths of three senior officials who had been on the alleged hit list. "Why have we not heard (from) the premier on these murders, the hit list and poisoning claims? The premier is a feared man. Our constitutional democracy is at stake if people won't talk because they are afraid of being taken out," said Benadie.
Former youth league leader Nkambule said he knew who was behind at least one of the killings of senior officials in government and had given the information to crime intelligence officials. He said some of the murders were planned at a farm outside Nelspruit owned by another ANC politician. Nkambule made headlines when he alleged that premier Mabuza had contributed R400000 to sponsor President Jacob Zuma's wedding to his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli.
Mohlala was shot dead at his house in Kanyamazane, outside Nelspruit, after he allegedly blew the whistle on the abuse of power and corruption relating to the construction of the province's R1-billion Mbombela Stadium intended for use during the 2010 World Cup.
Four weeks ago, Sammy Mpatlanyane, communications director in the provincial Department of Arts, Culture and Sport, was also gunned down at his home in Nelspruit. Mpatlanyane allegedly was regarded as an obstacle by the ANC boss and his powerful allies to winning irregular tenders involving the World Cup.
ANC national spokesman Mthembu said: "We are aware of the hit list and allegations against the politicians allegedly involved in these killings, but we cannot do anything until the police crack these cases. "We are particularly incensed that nobody has been brought to book since the murder of Mohlala. His murder happened so many months ago, but until now we still have not received any information that makes us confident that the matter is being dealt with properly."
Chasing the Fifa millions and other lucrative deals has been fatal for many in Mpumalanga.
The following people have either been killed, received death threats, disappeared or survived assassination attempts on their lives. The hit men - most of them alleged to be Zimbabwean and Mozambican nationals - are still at large.
* Saul Shabangu, (killed in 1998);
* Hebron Maisela (killed in 1998);
* Sydney de Lange (killed in 1998);
* Rose Alleta Mnisi (killed in 1999);
* Caswell Maluleke, (survived assassination in 2000);
* Joshua Ntshuhle (disappeared in 2005);
* Sizile Ndlovu, (survived assassination in 2006);
* Thandi Mtsweni (killed in 2008);
* Jimmy Mohlala (killed in 2009);
* Isaac Mohale Matsoabane (killed in 2009);
* Samuel Mpatlanyane (killed in 2010);
* Themba Monareng (died 2009);
* Mike Sifunda (died 2009);
* Simon Lubisi (died 2009);
* Lucas Shongwe (died 2009).
Source: Times Live
A 25-year-old contract killer has accused an influential ANC leader in Mpumalanga of offering him R100000 and a cushy government job if he poisoned government officials who were blocking access to tenders linked to the 2010 soccer World Cup.
The ANC boss, whose name is known to the Sunday Times, was fingered by more than a dozen other sources interviewed during a three-week investigation into the killings of at least a dozen senior politicians in Mpumalanga starting in 1998. The would-be assassin said he had been given the poison and had been ready to do the job, but had pulled out after a disagreement with his "client" over an advance fee. Though his three intended victims are still alive, six officials were murdered or died in suspicious circumstances in Mpumalanga last year alone and another has been killed this year. Local party leaders and officials who spoke to the Sunday Times mentioned a "hit list" of other proposed victims and said they were living in fear.
The Sunday Times has been given the full name of a Mozambican gangster known as "Josh" and told that he was responsible for the murder in January 2009 of Mbombela (Nelspruit) council speaker Jimmy Mohlala. "Josh" agreed to speak to our reporters in Mozambique, but then changed his mind. ANC national spokesman Jackson Mthembu - the former speaker of the Mpumalanga legislature - said the ruling party was aware of the alleged hit list and had sent a task team to investigate those responsible for the killings of its members in the province.
The Sunday Times investigation took reporters to sources in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Mozambique. Those interviewed included senior ANC members, municipal officials and National Intelligence Agency sources, as well as the province's former ANC Youth League leader, James Nkambule, and Mpu-malanga Democratic Alliance leader Anthony Benadie The Sunday Times has given details of the plot to police Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi and Mpumalanga's deputy provincial commissioner, Rex Machabi. They said the would-be killer would be interviewed soon.
The assassin said many people lived in fear of the ANC leader he had named. "This politician must be exposed and expelled from the ANC in order to stop his reign of terror in Mpumalanga. I am scared of him. Even those in the higher echelons are scared of him because he is too dangerous. I don't want to go on killing innocent people," he said. However, he did not admit to any killings. A former ANC regional leader, Alfred Monareng, said the ANC boss and his cabal used to have their opponents shot, but had switched to poison last year. He said the assassin interviewed by the Sunday Times had confessed to him that he had planned to spike a bottle of Johnny Walker whisky on Christmas Eve while drinking with him at his home in White River, where he works as a senior waste manager in the Mbombela municipality. "He told me he was about to poison me, but decided not to," said Monareng. "The motive behind the plot to kill me is apparently to force me to vacate my post in order to make way for a preferred Samwu (municipal workers' union) candidate who is known to me. They cannot find any case of misconduct, irregularities or corrupt activity, so they have resorted to poisoning me," he said.
Monareng said he had not believed the confession, but then discovered that other suspicious deaths, including that of his brother, could have been as a result of poison. "We now suspect that my brother, Themba (regional secretary), Mthandazo Ngobeni (chairman of the ANC Youth League), Vusi Sibiya (regional secretary), Lucas Shongwe (regional secretary) and the fiery ANC member Michael Sifunda were allegedly poisoned, as they showed similar symptoms before they died." They all vomited a white foam before dying.
Nelspruit mayor Lassy Chiwayo, whose name is on the hit list, said he was living in fear after receiving death threats on his cellphone. He has sent a report to ANC headquarters at Luthuli House about his victimisation. "I have been told I will go back home in a coffin," said Chiwayo. Deputy mayor Nackie Ndlovu said she had been told of plans to poison her. "I fear for my life and cannot trust anyone. There have been so many killings in Mpumalanga. We are pleading with the ANC to do something because we are really not safe any more," she said. At least 12 local leaders have been murdered or have died in suspicious circumstances in Mpumalanga since 1998. Police say they are investigating, but no one has been arrested.
People who spoke to the Sunday Times said they were afraid to give information to police because they did not know which faction of the party the law enforcement agents supported. DA provincial leader Benadie slammed Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza for his silence on the deaths of three senior officials who had been on the alleged hit list. "Why have we not heard (from) the premier on these murders, the hit list and poisoning claims? The premier is a feared man. Our constitutional democracy is at stake if people won't talk because they are afraid of being taken out," said Benadie.
Former youth league leader Nkambule said he knew who was behind at least one of the killings of senior officials in government and had given the information to crime intelligence officials. He said some of the murders were planned at a farm outside Nelspruit owned by another ANC politician. Nkambule made headlines when he alleged that premier Mabuza had contributed R400000 to sponsor President Jacob Zuma's wedding to his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli.
Mohlala was shot dead at his house in Kanyamazane, outside Nelspruit, after he allegedly blew the whistle on the abuse of power and corruption relating to the construction of the province's R1-billion Mbombela Stadium intended for use during the 2010 World Cup.
Four weeks ago, Sammy Mpatlanyane, communications director in the provincial Department of Arts, Culture and Sport, was also gunned down at his home in Nelspruit. Mpatlanyane allegedly was regarded as an obstacle by the ANC boss and his powerful allies to winning irregular tenders involving the World Cup.
ANC national spokesman Mthembu said: "We are aware of the hit list and allegations against the politicians allegedly involved in these killings, but we cannot do anything until the police crack these cases. "We are particularly incensed that nobody has been brought to book since the murder of Mohlala. His murder happened so many months ago, but until now we still have not received any information that makes us confident that the matter is being dealt with properly."
Chasing the Fifa millions and other lucrative deals has been fatal for many in Mpumalanga.
The following people have either been killed, received death threats, disappeared or survived assassination attempts on their lives. The hit men - most of them alleged to be Zimbabwean and Mozambican nationals - are still at large.
* Saul Shabangu, (killed in 1998);
* Hebron Maisela (killed in 1998);
* Sydney de Lange (killed in 1998);
* Rose Alleta Mnisi (killed in 1999);
* Caswell Maluleke, (survived assassination in 2000);
* Joshua Ntshuhle (disappeared in 2005);
* Sizile Ndlovu, (survived assassination in 2006);
* Thandi Mtsweni (killed in 2008);
* Jimmy Mohlala (killed in 2009);
* Isaac Mohale Matsoabane (killed in 2009);
* Samuel Mpatlanyane (killed in 2010);
* Themba Monareng (died 2009);
* Mike Sifunda (died 2009);
* Simon Lubisi (died 2009);
* Lucas Shongwe (died 2009).
Source: Times Live
Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Businessmen kidnapping scheme cracked
A top-level team of detectives arrested members of an international fraud syndicate which has been linked to the kidnapping of several prominent businessmen, one of whom was found murdered this month. The detectives made their breakthrough when they arrested five alleged kidnappers early on Tuesday, several hours after rescuing a Jordanian national the kidnappers had lured to South Africa with the promise of making a quick fortune.
Seven cases of kidnapping, resulting in 10 arrests, are being investigated by the police task team, drawn from the SAPS National Special Investigations Unit and formally established two weeks ago. Four of the victims were international businessmen who had been lured to South Africa by criminals using either a Nigerian advance-fee fraud or the "black dollar" scams. Police, who have been tight-lipped about investigations despite having released several warnings about the scams internationally in the past few days, confirmed major breakthroughs in their investigations. Inspector Mark Reynolds, a spokesperson for the team, said more than one syndicate was believed to be behind the kidnappings.
The most recent breakthrough occurred during the early hours of yesterday when three Nigerians, a Ghanaian national and a South African suspect were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Jordanian citizen Abu Baker Mohammed Ali Saqaallah,57. Saqaallah was lured to South Africa by a fraud syndicate on June 12 and kidnapped at Johannesburg International Airport on his arrival. His attackers contacted his family in Jordan and demanded about R240 000 for his release.
The task team found Saqaallah, unharmed, on Monday afternoon and freed him. Continued work led to the five arrests on Tuesday. Four arrests have also been made in connection with the kidnapping of Johannesburg businessman Lawrie Butler, who was abducted with his son and father-in-law when they were on their way to church on March 14. Police managed to track Butler and the other two victims to a hideout in Soweto. Three South Africans and a Bulgarian suspect were arrested in connection with the incident.
Johannesburg businessman Zunaid Tayob, 33, was snatched by six men several kilometres from his Houghton home five days later, on March 19. The kidnappers demanded about R1,86-million for his release before police foiled the crime and Tayob was released unhurt. Other victims include Chinese businessman Chi-Chen Shen, an unnamed Greek business tycoon, who lives in Bedfordview on the East Rand, Canadian Jean Pierre Li Shing Tat - who was found dead - and Japanese businessman Kensuke Matsumoto.
The advanced-fee scam involves the international circulation of an appeal to businessmen requesting help to transfer over-budgeted money, while the black dollar scam involves the sale of counterfeit US dollars covered in ink.
Source: IoL
Seven cases of kidnapping, resulting in 10 arrests, are being investigated by the police task team, drawn from the SAPS National Special Investigations Unit and formally established two weeks ago. Four of the victims were international businessmen who had been lured to South Africa by criminals using either a Nigerian advance-fee fraud or the "black dollar" scams. Police, who have been tight-lipped about investigations despite having released several warnings about the scams internationally in the past few days, confirmed major breakthroughs in their investigations. Inspector Mark Reynolds, a spokesperson for the team, said more than one syndicate was believed to be behind the kidnappings.
The most recent breakthrough occurred during the early hours of yesterday when three Nigerians, a Ghanaian national and a South African suspect were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Jordanian citizen Abu Baker Mohammed Ali Saqaallah,57. Saqaallah was lured to South Africa by a fraud syndicate on June 12 and kidnapped at Johannesburg International Airport on his arrival. His attackers contacted his family in Jordan and demanded about R240 000 for his release.
The task team found Saqaallah, unharmed, on Monday afternoon and freed him. Continued work led to the five arrests on Tuesday. Four arrests have also been made in connection with the kidnapping of Johannesburg businessman Lawrie Butler, who was abducted with his son and father-in-law when they were on their way to church on March 14. Police managed to track Butler and the other two victims to a hideout in Soweto. Three South Africans and a Bulgarian suspect were arrested in connection with the incident.
Johannesburg businessman Zunaid Tayob, 33, was snatched by six men several kilometres from his Houghton home five days later, on March 19. The kidnappers demanded about R1,86-million for his release before police foiled the crime and Tayob was released unhurt. Other victims include Chinese businessman Chi-Chen Shen, an unnamed Greek business tycoon, who lives in Bedfordview on the East Rand, Canadian Jean Pierre Li Shing Tat - who was found dead - and Japanese businessman Kensuke Matsumoto.
The advanced-fee scam involves the international circulation of an appeal to businessmen requesting help to transfer over-budgeted money, while the black dollar scam involves the sale of counterfeit US dollars covered in ink.
Source: IoL
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