The Public Protector is to probe tenders awarded to the company SGL Engineering Projects, on whose board ANC Youth League president Julius Malema apparently serves as a director. The tenders include a R2,1-million sewerage upgrade, R39,3-million sewerage reticulation project, and a R27,9-million street paving and
drainage contract, Kgalalelo Masibi, a spokesperson for the Office of the Public Protector, said on Friday . Also under investigation were a R28-million tender for several municipal infrastructure projects and a R2-billion roads tender, she said.
The investigation followed complaints by AfriForum Youth and the Congress of the People. "The Public Protector can only investigate the conduct of public authorities," said Masibi. "The investigation will focus on whether any conduct in the award or management of the contracts in question was improper," she said.
Public Protector advocate Thuli Madonsela earlier said her office had received a number of complaints about alleged tender irregularities in various municipalities across Limpopo. "I have assembled a team to undertake this task. I have also initiated talks with the Auditor General with a view to conduct a joint investigation," she said.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, Malema was asked if he thought it was fair to ask how he had accumulated his wealth at such a young age. Malema replied: "It's very fair. But write facts. What the media did [showed] it was never interested in the facts. I am not rich. I do not have millions as reported." He said that all his houses had bonds and were financed by banks. "I've never got any lucrative tender from anybody, including the company called SGL. "I live on handouts most of the time. If I don't have food to eat, I can call Cassel Mathale [premier of Limpopo] and say: "Chief, can you help me? I've got nothing here." I can call Thaba Mufamadi, I can call Pule Mabe [ANCYL treasurer general] or Mbalula. They all do the same with me. That's how we have come to relate to each other."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Showing posts with label SGL Engineering Projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SGL Engineering Projects. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Leaders’ Lavishness Gives Rise to ‘Lifestyle Audits’
Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, has 20 children, three wives and a fiancée. Recently, the matter of how he supports this large and widely dispersed family has been vigorously questioned. Indeed, the finances of everyone in government are suddenly viewed with a skepticism that often drifts into contempt. Zwelinzima Vavi, a labor leader and longtime ally of Mr. Zuma’s, is calling for “lifestyle audits” of all senior officials to surmise who is on the take and just how much they are taking.
For years, people have noticed a mismatch between the income and the outgo of many within the governing African National Congress. The A.N.C. is the party of Nelson Mandela, the organization that liberated the country from apartheid, the home of many heroes now struggling to get rich. In his novel “Black Diamond,” Zakes Mda, one of the nation’s leading writers, wryly observed, “In this brave new world, accumulation of personal wealth is dressed up in militarism, as if capitalism is the continuation of the guerrilla warfare that was fought during apartheid.”
The catalyst for the current demand for accounting is not Mr. Zuma but rather the second most quoted member of the A.N.C., the leader of its youth league, Julius Malema. A virtual unknown two years ago, Mr. Malema, 29, is a young man seemingly unwise beyond his years. His A.N.C. comrades could perhaps tolerate his abuse of political opponents, enjoying how he denounced them as Satanists or demeaned the women as too ugly to marry. He recently insulted the country’s Afrikaner minority by leading students in the old struggle chant, “Kill the farmer, kill the Boer.” In a nation where the police say 861 white farmers have been killed since 2001, some deemed this sing-along insensitive to say the least. But Mr. Malema has also turned his tongue on veteran A.N.C. stalwarts, particularly leaders of the party’s alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, calling them reactionaries. He said the Communists presented themselves as champions of the working class while “they spend most of their time drinking red wine.”
Mr. Malema is popular in the townships, where most young people delight in the entertainment value of his scalding wit. But he is increasingly despised within his own party’s hierarchy and now claims that several A.N.C. leaders are out to “smear” him. This hardly seems implausible. For a long time, people have wondered how a young man with an impoverished past has collected enough cash to own a fine home in the Johannesburg suburbs. Mr. Malema serves Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky and Moët & Chandon Champagne at his parties. He wears Gucci suits and a Breitling watch. He walks through poor communities in designer jeans.
In a single weekend last month, three major newspapers published exposés about Mr. Malema, asserting that he has amassed a fortune through government contracts steered to businesses in which he owns an interest. According to The City Press, one company, SGL Engineering Projects, which listed Mr. Malema as a director, won $20 million in contracts from municipalities in Mr. Malema’s home province. The company’s earnings have multiplied in just the past two years, even though its work has often been found shoddy, news reports said. These simultaneous revelations may have been a case of coincidental sleuthing — or perhaps closely timed leaks from well-informed enemies. Under pressure to respond, Mr. Malema, speaking through his attorney, said that in 2008 he resigned his directorships in all companies. He insisted that he was unaware that he currently held a position in SGL.
Mr. Zuma has routinely supported his pugnacious acolyte, and this time was no different. “I’m not sure Malema has no right to business, on what basis I don’t know,” the president said. But blood was in the water, and soon the call for lifestyle audits stretched into the presidency itself. Mr. Zuma said such invasive accounting was unnecessary, arguing that by law government officials already were obligated to disclose their business interests, gifts and assets. The president was correct about that. In fact, by law he was supposed to report the details of his finances within 60 days of assuming office. He was inaugurated 10 months ago but had yet to comply with the ethics code.
Last Wednesday, a week after the news media finally awakened to Mr. Zuma’s non-compliance — and after even some political allies had joined political adversaries in their disapproval — the president submitted an accounting of his holdings, though the extent of that disclosure has yet to become public. As to how he supports all those dependents, part of the answer emerged Tuesday when Collins Chabane, a minister within the presidency, said the government provided more than $2 million a year for “spousal” support. The examples he gave were for expenses relating to the duties of Mr. Zuma’s wives in their capacities as first ladies, such as secretaries, air travel, cellphones and computers. No details were given regarding government support for the president’s children. The payment of Mr. Zuma’s bills has been an issue before. In 2005, a close friend and financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was found guilty of bribing Mr. Zuma in return for help in various business deals. The moneybags were open for items big and small: vacations, medical bills, even the allowance for Mr. Zuma’s children. The trial judge said the two had a “mutually beneficial symbiosis.”
Mr. Zuma was later charged with 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering. He avoided a trial when prosecutors dismissed the case because of misconduct within their ranks, just weeks before he was sworn in as president.
Mr. Shaik, sentenced to 15 years, spent only 28 months in jail before being freed on medical parole in March 2009. At the time, he was said to be near death, though he has since been observed driving around Durban in his BMW X6. That is not the automobile Mr. Malema prefers. He sits behind the wheel of a black C63 Mercedes-Benz AMG.
Source: New York Times
For years, people have noticed a mismatch between the income and the outgo of many within the governing African National Congress. The A.N.C. is the party of Nelson Mandela, the organization that liberated the country from apartheid, the home of many heroes now struggling to get rich. In his novel “Black Diamond,” Zakes Mda, one of the nation’s leading writers, wryly observed, “In this brave new world, accumulation of personal wealth is dressed up in militarism, as if capitalism is the continuation of the guerrilla warfare that was fought during apartheid.”
The catalyst for the current demand for accounting is not Mr. Zuma but rather the second most quoted member of the A.N.C., the leader of its youth league, Julius Malema. A virtual unknown two years ago, Mr. Malema, 29, is a young man seemingly unwise beyond his years. His A.N.C. comrades could perhaps tolerate his abuse of political opponents, enjoying how he denounced them as Satanists or demeaned the women as too ugly to marry. He recently insulted the country’s Afrikaner minority by leading students in the old struggle chant, “Kill the farmer, kill the Boer.” In a nation where the police say 861 white farmers have been killed since 2001, some deemed this sing-along insensitive to say the least. But Mr. Malema has also turned his tongue on veteran A.N.C. stalwarts, particularly leaders of the party’s alliance partners, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, calling them reactionaries. He said the Communists presented themselves as champions of the working class while “they spend most of their time drinking red wine.”
Mr. Malema is popular in the townships, where most young people delight in the entertainment value of his scalding wit. But he is increasingly despised within his own party’s hierarchy and now claims that several A.N.C. leaders are out to “smear” him. This hardly seems implausible. For a long time, people have wondered how a young man with an impoverished past has collected enough cash to own a fine home in the Johannesburg suburbs. Mr. Malema serves Johnnie Walker Red Label whisky and Moët & Chandon Champagne at his parties. He wears Gucci suits and a Breitling watch. He walks through poor communities in designer jeans.
In a single weekend last month, three major newspapers published exposés about Mr. Malema, asserting that he has amassed a fortune through government contracts steered to businesses in which he owns an interest. According to The City Press, one company, SGL Engineering Projects, which listed Mr. Malema as a director, won $20 million in contracts from municipalities in Mr. Malema’s home province. The company’s earnings have multiplied in just the past two years, even though its work has often been found shoddy, news reports said. These simultaneous revelations may have been a case of coincidental sleuthing — or perhaps closely timed leaks from well-informed enemies. Under pressure to respond, Mr. Malema, speaking through his attorney, said that in 2008 he resigned his directorships in all companies. He insisted that he was unaware that he currently held a position in SGL.
Mr. Zuma has routinely supported his pugnacious acolyte, and this time was no different. “I’m not sure Malema has no right to business, on what basis I don’t know,” the president said. But blood was in the water, and soon the call for lifestyle audits stretched into the presidency itself. Mr. Zuma said such invasive accounting was unnecessary, arguing that by law government officials already were obligated to disclose their business interests, gifts and assets. The president was correct about that. In fact, by law he was supposed to report the details of his finances within 60 days of assuming office. He was inaugurated 10 months ago but had yet to comply with the ethics code.
Last Wednesday, a week after the news media finally awakened to Mr. Zuma’s non-compliance — and after even some political allies had joined political adversaries in their disapproval — the president submitted an accounting of his holdings, though the extent of that disclosure has yet to become public. As to how he supports all those dependents, part of the answer emerged Tuesday when Collins Chabane, a minister within the presidency, said the government provided more than $2 million a year for “spousal” support. The examples he gave were for expenses relating to the duties of Mr. Zuma’s wives in their capacities as first ladies, such as secretaries, air travel, cellphones and computers. No details were given regarding government support for the president’s children. The payment of Mr. Zuma’s bills has been an issue before. In 2005, a close friend and financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was found guilty of bribing Mr. Zuma in return for help in various business deals. The moneybags were open for items big and small: vacations, medical bills, even the allowance for Mr. Zuma’s children. The trial judge said the two had a “mutually beneficial symbiosis.”
Mr. Zuma was later charged with 16 counts of fraud, corruption and racketeering. He avoided a trial when prosecutors dismissed the case because of misconduct within their ranks, just weeks before he was sworn in as president.
Mr. Shaik, sentenced to 15 years, spent only 28 months in jail before being freed on medical parole in March 2009. At the time, he was said to be near death, though he has since been observed driving around Durban in his BMW X6. That is not the automobile Mr. Malema prefers. He sits behind the wheel of a black C63 Mercedes-Benz AMG.
Source: New York Times
Monday, March 1, 2010
Malema roads washed away
Transport officials will look into reports that several newly-built bridges and roads in Limpopo have been washed away, Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele says in an apparent reference to work carried out by a company owned by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. "It is a serious matter... Roads are the responsibility of the national department of transport and local municipalities," Ndebele said at an infrastructure ministerial cluster briefing in Cape Town. "We do have this overall task of ensuring that standards are maintained throughout the country, so that a road should be a road, a bridge should be a bridge, whether it is built by a municipality or a province or national government. We will be looking at what has happened there."
The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that several multi-million rand bridges and roads in Limpopo, built by SGL Engineering Projects in which Malema has the majority shareholding, had been washed away within weeks of their completion. It reported that communities affected were demanding that authorities force the company to repair the infrastructure or take legal steps to recoup the money spent.
City Press visited several SGL projects in the past week. "At Kgapane Township, about 120km east of Polokwane, only a portion of one of the two bridges constructed last year [is] still in place," the newspaper reported. "A bridge built at the township's Meloding Section is effectively a hill of soil covered with pavement. It has no concrete layers. "Residents said heavy rains in January swept it away just a few weeks after it was finished."
Source: Times Live
The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that several multi-million rand bridges and roads in Limpopo, built by SGL Engineering Projects in which Malema has the majority shareholding, had been washed away within weeks of their completion. It reported that communities affected were demanding that authorities force the company to repair the infrastructure or take legal steps to recoup the money spent.
City Press visited several SGL projects in the past week. "At Kgapane Township, about 120km east of Polokwane, only a portion of one of the two bridges constructed last year [is] still in place," the newspaper reported. "A bridge built at the township's Meloding Section is effectively a hill of soil covered with pavement. It has no concrete layers. "Residents said heavy rains in January swept it away just a few weeks after it was finished."
Source: Times Live
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