Officials cock a snook at Land Claims Judge

The Matabane Community of Waterberg in the Limpopo Province and landowners scored a significant Land Claim's Court victory three months ago. Both groups have been in an eighteen-year struggle for compensation. The Judge hearing their case berated Land Claims officials and the State Attorney for dragging their heels.

The community had sought restitution of the land that had been expropriated from them. It comprised a number of farms in the Waterberg district.

Officials remiss and arrogant

The Restitution of Land Rights Act came into operation in 1994, "To provide for the restitution of rights in land to persons or communities dispossessed of such rights after 19 June 1913 as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices." The Matabane Community fall into this group.

Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann said that in effecting redress, the law expects Land Claims officials to, "do anything necessarily connected with, or reasonably incidental to the expeditious finalisation of claims." It was clear from the evidence before the Land Claims Court that officials had been remiss in their handling of the Matabane Community's case and arrogant in their dealings with the court. Their "remissness", as the Judge described it, was not limited to this matter. Evidence before the court suggested that it was part of a bigger malaise.

Thousands of claims not yet finalised

Judge Bertelsmann said that is was: "disconcerting that between seven and nine thousand claims have not remotely been finalised almost twenty years after the Land Claims Act was passed." "One could be forgiven for assuming that under these circumstances land claims officials would be clamouring at the gates of Court insisting upon speedy resolutions of outstanding matters."

In the matter before court, land claims officials had early in 2007 established that the landowners, who were to be deprived of their farms, had rejected adjudication of their compensation claim through the Land Claims Commission's internal processes. They insisted that the matter be taken to court. Land Claims Court proceedings could only begin once the Commission has issued a Notice of Referral. This was not done.

Dragging of heels

Towards the end of 2007 the landowners obtained a court order compelling the Commission to issue the Notice of Referral. The Commission, unhappy with the Court's directive, unsuccessfully sought leave to appeal it. The Notice of Referral was finally issued late in May 2009. It was defective in a number of respects. Judge Bertelsmann: "There is no explanation on the papers why it took almost a year to take this step. Even less is there an explanation for the failure to fully include in such notice all information required by the Act and the Rules."

Hearings in the Land Claims Court - a court which has the same stature as the High Court - are preceded by a pre-trial conference so that the parties may agree on the further conduct of the case and limit the number of issues to be adjudicated upon. There were seven pre-trial conferences. The first took place in June 2011 and the last in May 2012. Bertelsmann found that this process had taken an unreasonably long time.

Judicial displeasure

Judge Bertelsmann: "The Commission and its functionaries have been remiss in the performance of their duties to advance the claimants' case as speedily as possible."

In the July 2011 pre-trial conference the defendants' attorney gave the Commission the addresses of all interested parties by so that they could be notified that the matter was heading for court and a decision might be made affecting their rights. At that pre-trial conference the Commission undertook to file at court a certificate relating to competing land claims and the State Attorney - the law firm representing the Commission - undertook to notify the interested parties. They all agreed that this would be done by 19 August 2011. This agreement had the effect of a court order.

By September 2011, when the third pre-trial conference took place, it became apparent that the undertakings by the Commission and the State Attorney had not been honoured. According to the judgment, the Commission was directed by the court to file an affidavit explaining how all of the court's previous directives had been dealt with. If the directive had not all been complied with, the Commission was directed to explain under oath:

• why it should not be held in contempt of Court;

• why is should not be ordered to comply with all previous orders within ten further days;

• why its legal representatives [the State Attorney] should not be ordered to pay the costs of two days of pre-trial conference de bonis propriis on the scale of attorney and client. In the alternative, why the Commission should not pay such costs on the punitive scale."

A costs order de bonis propriis is rarely made. It is a radical order, punitive in nature and conveys the court's disapproval of substantial misconduct by a litigant. The person against whom such an order is made has to pay the costs out of their own pocket. In the case of a state official, the relevant government department would not be held liable to pay the costs order on behalf of such an official.

The lamentable disregard for the Court's orders continued. Judge Bertelsmann: "In spite of this expression of judicial displeasure at the continued failure to comply with the Courts orders, no effect was given to them."

This Act makes provision for claimants lawyers to be paid by the Commission during the restitution process. Funding had been approved years before, but no money had been forthcoming. The Judge noted that this sort of failure is a factor that adversely impacts upon litigants' constitutional right of access to justice.

Constitutional litigation

The Judge observed that, "restitution of land rights is essentially constitutional litigation."

"The Commission is an Organ of State created for the very purpose of safeguarding the constitutional rights of claimants and landowners alike, who both find themselves in litigation with the State and whose interests and competing claims should be treated with due diligence and respect."

Contempt of Court

Judge Bertelsmann considered the defendants' request that a number of Land Claims officials be held in contempt of Court. "Attention must first be paid to the explanation proffered by the State parties for their remissness," he said. He singled out Mr Richard Mulaudzi, a Legal Administrative Officer in the Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner for the Limpopo Province.

Mulaudzi, in an affidavit, filed outside of the time limits set by the court, shared his personal views with Judge Steve Kahanovitz, the Judge who heard an earlier aspect of this claim: "I would not serve much purpose for the Commissioners to be deviated by the Court to appear. I did not find any compelling reason [given by Judge Kahanovitz] that necessitated that the Commissioner should be ordered to attend."

"Mr Mulaudzi's remarks regarding the need for the Commissioners to obey the Court's instruction are grossly inappropriate and display an extremely and highly regrettable attitude towards the Court's dignity and authority. Mulaudzi's views regarding the need to obey a Court's order are contemptuous and display an extremely worrisome ignorance of his duties as a civil servant employed by an organ of State toward the Courts in general and toward this Court in this matter in particular. Orders of court must be complied with, regardless as to whether they are issued correctly or otherwise, until they are recalled or set aside. This is a fundamental principle of a democratic constitutional State," said Judge Bertelsmann.

Referring to the time early in 1998 when Louis Luyt subpoenaed former President Nelson Mandela to testify to the South African Rugby Football Union case, Bertelsmann wrote, "Mr Mulaudzi would be well advised to study the example of the first post-apartheid President of the Republic of South Africa."

The Judge was unable to hold the Land Claims officials in contempt on legal technical grounds.

He expressed the Court's displeasure by ordering the Regional Land Claims commissioner to pay the defendants costs on the scale as between attorney and client.

Judge Bertelsmann further ordered that the matter be brought to finality as soon as possible.

We will be following the further progress of this particular land claim. Watch this space.

Source: Politicsweb

President Jacob Verwoerd's lame excuses for textbook scandal

It is not difficult to deliver a schoolbook to a child who wants one. President Jacob Zuma’s lame excuses are, sadly as we say, merely typical of an administration that has in all respects lost its way.

HOW sad it was to hear President Jacob Zuma , in an interview with Radio 702 host Redi Thlabi, insist that the Limpopo textbook scandal is the fault of the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd.

As if it were Verwoerd, not Zuma’s educational trust, who took money from Edusolutions in return for contracts to distribute school textbooks. As if it were Verwoerd, not Zuma’s administration, who dumped textbooks in a river, not once but at least twice, instead of delivering them to the African children waiting for them.

It was Verwoerd, not Zuma’s lax controls, who caused municipalities to misspend R11bn last year and Verwoerd, not Zuma’s allies in the Free State, who promised to cover exposed toilets in the province last year and still have not.

It is Verwoerd who drives a truckload of helpless passengers into the face of an oncoming train, killing all of them, and it is Verwoerd who dreams restlessly of the poor while he contemplates the purchase of a billion-rand personal jetliner.

Of course, we know what Mr Zuma means. Apartheid did great damage. But that does not mean we should be impressed with Mr Zuma now. The job, we thought, of a democratic government in South Africa was to improve on the ills of apartheid, not to embed them.

In the course of an hour-long interview with an excellent Ms Thlabi, the head of state did not once take responsibility for a single problem the country faces — not corruption, not crime, not the lack of education. In his own mind he is fixing all of these things, not making them worse.

Faced with myopia on this grand scale, ordinary South Africans have little choice but to put their heads down and do whatever job is at hand to the best of their ability, hoping our current political ordeal passes. It is probably too late, though, for this generation of schoolchildren in at least Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. They are largely lost.

The only people who could do more than the rest of us will be the delegates at the ANC’s leadership contest in Mangaung in December. They will be asked directly whether they want Verwoerd to continue running the country or to relieve Mr Zuma of the burdens of high office. The choice, to us, is easy.

It is not difficult to deliver a schoolbook to a child who wants one. Mr Zuma’s lame excuses are, sadly as we say, merely typical of an administration that has in all respects lost its way.

Source: Business Day

Textbook crisis: Education department favoured dodgy tender

The education ministry was informed EduSolutions's contract was in breach of various regulations before using it as a supplier for school textbooks.

The Limpopo textbook crisis was created by the department of basic education's reluctance to bypass EduSolutions, despite sitting on a scathing legal opinion that found the politically connected textbook supply company's R320-million contract with Limpopo was "neither fair, equitable, transparent, competitive nor cost effective".

As early as January 17, the national department received a recommendation from senior counsel advocate Pat Ellis that the department had to order textbooks outside of the contract with EduSolutions, which he found was "probably invalid".

Instead, the department waited until early May to place the orders.

The Mail & Guardian has obtained an opinion given to state attorney John Ngoetjana by Ellis as early as January 17 this year that the EduSolutions contract was probably unconstitutional and in breach of treasury regulations and the Public Finance Management Act.

It recommended that the department use an urgency provision in treasury regulations to source the books from another supplier.

Basic education director general Bobby Soobrayan confirmed on Thursday that Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga had been informed of the legal opinion. "The minister would have been told of the opinion early," Soobrayan said.

The M&G has also seen a circular sent to Soobrayan and Limpopo's basic education minister Dickson Masemola by the former head of the department's intervention team in Limpopo, Anis Karodia.

He stated that the textbooks contract had been "allocated to a private company [EduSolutions] at an exorbitant tender price that had compromised the department" and that "the company is under investigation and we are not allowed to procure from the said company".

The M&G was unable to establish who is investigating EduSolutions.

It has also been reported that a departmental whistle-blower, Solly Tshitangano, alerted Motshekga in July last year to alleged irregularities in the textbooks tender. Tshitangano has been suspended for alleged misconduct related to procurement.

Despite this, Karodia terminated the EduSolutions contract only on April 26 this year and the national department waited until early May to place new book orders.

The main source of that delay appears to have been Motshekga, who assured EduSolutions on April 2 that everything was still in order and that the department would honour the contract.

EduSolutions director Moosa Ntimba told the M&G this week that it planned to bring a civil claim next week against the department for "monies outstanding" and "loss of profit", maintaining that "there was no indication from the minister [on April 2] that the contract would be terminated".

Ntimba said the company had "fully co-operated" with the department. He also disputed Karodia's criticism of the "exorbitant" tender price, saying the prices were agreed "between the government and publishers".

Last week, EduSolutions failed in an application to the North Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to have the contract reinstated.

In his opinion, Ellis said he was "confident that a proper case can be made that the contract should be reviewed and declared void".

"I am therefore of the view that the department ought to procure school books for Limpopo in terms of the urgency provisions of … treasury regulations."

His opinion also makes it clear that he consulted two senior officials from the national education department.

Karodia took over the department's administration in December, which he described as a "free-for-all" (See "Intervention team uncovers 'massive mismanagement of funds'" below).

In particular, he noted that there appeared to be "a dominant force of members within the bid adjudicating committee and they receive instructions and pronouncements form influential staff regarding the awarding of tenders".

In late March or early April, EduSolutions lodged a complaint with Motshekga and Soobrayan about Karodia's conduct, claiming that his "verbal and written utterances were defamatory, unsubstantiated and subjective".

Later in May, Motshekga removed Karodia from his position. Soobrayan said that he was removed because he was a bad manager, was "argumentative" and "made allegations about the [provincial minister Masemola] which were embarrassing to the minister".

Soobrayan also said that Karodia had spoken directly to publishers while disregarding the EduSolutions contract.

Karodia has been quoted as saying that he wanted to terminate EduSolution's contract "as soon as the intervention team arrived in Limpopo", but that he faced resistance from the national department and Motshekga.

He told City Press last week: "Myself and [chief administrator] Monde Tom raised the issue with her [Motshekga]. She said, no, no, we have to buy from EduSolutions.

"After a month and a half, Soobrayan came down to Limpopo and said we should cancel the EduSolutions contract."

An education official, who asked not to be named, said that "if the department had terminated the contract early enough, we could have had the books in the schools by April or May".

Although Motshekga has tried to distance herself from the root causes of the textbook crisis, blaming it on administrative impediments, she was alerted to concern about the validity of EduSolution's contract as early as July last year.

The M&G has seen copies of correspondence sent to Motshekga on July 5 2011 by Tshitangano alerting her to alleged "irregular transactions in the Limpopo department of education".

Tshitangano was suspended in April 2011 on charges of misconduct broadly relating "to procurement issues that occurred in May 2010" when the department advertised a bid to outsource the procurement and distribution of pupil and teacher support material to schools in the province.

In a Labour Court affidavit, Tshitangano, who is claiming unfair dismissal, said that he raised several concerns regarding the bid adjudicating committee's decision to appoint EduSolutions as the preferred bidder.

According to Tshitangano, it was not clear on what basis the tender was awarded to EduSolutions, given that the competitive bidding process necessarily involved the assessment of tenders on a points-scoring system.

The bid committee simply indicated that of the 23 bids received, only one service provider met the criteria, obviating the need for scoring and extracting any comparative analysis between competitive bids.

Tshitangano said it was unclear whether any cost-benefit analysis for the services required was done before the bid was advertised.

He wrote to the head of the Limpopo education department, Bennie Boshielo, advising him to request that state law advisers and risk and supply-chain management from the treasury carry out a review. This never took place.

In his legal opinion, Ellis noted that no order had been placed for school books in Limpopo for 2012 and "position is critical, since the first school term is a day away and no school books have been ordered".

Describing the supply system provided for in the service-level agreement with EduSolutions, he noted that:

It allows all schools to buy the most expensive books, regardless of their quality or the need for them and without regard to budgetary constraints;
After negotiating the best deal with publishers, EduSolutions could keep 30% of any discount, passing on the balance to the department. However, this was not audited.
The arrangement lacked the benefit of an open tender – of procuring the product as cheaply and effectively as possible. "The contract has appropriated that benefit for the supplier and has deprived the department of that benefit," he said.



Ellis concluded that the agreement breached the stipulated legislation in that "the provincial department appears to have attempted (to contract) out of its obligation to manage demand, acquisition, logistics and risk and left those to be dealt with by the supplier."

Intervention team uncovers 'massive mismanagement of funds'
Confidential circulars penned by Anis Karodia, head of the intervention task team sent in by the national government, throw into mind-boggling relief the administrative chaos, financial mayhem, waste and plunder of public resources he unearthed in the Limpopo education department.

In two circulars dated March 12 and March 16 2012 and distributed to the head of the intervention unit, the treasury's Monde Tom, Limpopo's minister for education Dickson Masemola, the department's chief financial officer, Martin Mashaba, and the director general of basic education, Bobby Soobrayan, Karodia declared: "There is no doubt that there has been a massive mismanagement of funds."He also said that the department had "waded through the ­latter part of 2011-2012 in a state of bankruptcy".

He conservatively estimated budget overruns and misappropriation, stemming back to 2009, at R2.6-billion.

Salaries and compensation costs stood at 87% of the total yearly budget, leaving a miniscule amount for the delivery of education services.

Karodia said Mashaba and the department's entire "top-heavy" financial system was unqualified, unable to monitor spending and had "a disregard for" planning.

Senior managers had little understanding of the department and were "slow, cumbersome and lack … direction", whereas supervision was poor and managers were unavailable when important documentation and discussions were required.

In general, the staff did "not have the attitude or will to work". There was no sense of purpose, which had led to a "free-for-all".

Karodia said the "monetary quagmire" would have to be dealt with through the three-year medium-term framework and beyond in order to stabilise the department.

Among the consequences were that schools were starved of funding, services were not provided and service providers went unpaid.

He said the school nutrition ­programme in Limpopo, which feeds children from impoverished households, needed to be revived.

Other consequences of the crisis were:

More than R50-million was owed to transport service providers, who were effectively double-charging the department through the use of an approved payment system that charged per pupil and for running costs;

Department cellphone and landline bills, which Karodia described as "vulgar", were each running at about R1-million a month;

There was aimless and unnecessary travel by a host of officials;

Many schools had not paid their electricity bills;

There was unnecessary catering and abuse of the grocery budget;

Too many workshops and meetings were held while work remained incomplete and there was unnecessary training of senior staff who should already have had the correct competency;

There were excessive hotel stays; and

District and circular office support was poor and these offices also showed poor initiative in ­rolling out directives from the department.

Source: Mail & Guardian

South Africans Suffer as Graft Saps Provinces

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

Prince Mashele on the ANC's moral corruption

Hot on the heels of Limpopo’s financial implosion comes eThekwini, the municipality that looks set to earn the dubious honour of being this country’s most corrupt. Political analyst Prince Mashele says South Africa is easily disposed to corruption because of the ANC’s political structures which encourage patronage and a quid pro quo reward system. This, together with gross materialism and rampant greed, he says, is creating a deadly cocktail of moral degradation.

Sicelo Shiceka gave local governments five years to clean up their acts when he launched operation Clean Audit 2014 to Parliament in 2009. Perhaps the then minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs was a little optimistic, but God knows the good minister did his best when it came to corruption. Shiceka, of course, bit the dust despite his singing “What a friend I have in Zuma”, and it comes as no surprise that operation Clean Audit had as much chance of success as the good minister did of sticking to a budget.

As the Auditor General’s municipal horror show came to town and the debacle that was most municipal audits were revealed, the writing was on the wall. Then Limpopo imploded, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when the Manase report into corruption at the eThekwini municipality revealed the worst. The forensic audit showed that 10 councillors and 123 municipal officials were engaged in business dealings with the city, in what is said to be one of the most extensive local government graft networks detailed yet.

Political analyst Prince Mashele says that the very structures and morality of the ANC has set up this system, where party politics and economic favours go hand-in-hand. “The ANC is the ruling party at a local, provincial and national level, so if you are a member of the ANC and you hope to occupy a position of power in the state, you know that there is a 90% chance of succeeding if you go through your structures,” says Mashele. If you want to be a municipal councillor, you simply work through the internal structures of the ANC until you realise your goal, he says.

“Anybody who wants a position in the state needs to mobilise with his or her delegates internally,” explains Mashele, who says that this structure has given rise to the corruption of the entire organisation at all levels. “Human beings are naturally acquisitive – they want to better their lot,” he says, adding that lobbying and jostling for power in local structures creates an obligation in ANC politicians to reward those who have helped people get to their desired station in the party, and in government. “As a result of this, the politics of the ANC have been subverted into the politics of material possession,” says Mashele.

The head of the Centre for Politics and Research, Mashele says this obligation by ANC politicians to reward patronage creates a quid pro quo kind of mentality that is pervasive in the ruling party. “I have tested this informally with folks from different municipalities, and if there is a municipality run by the ANC and you are a local businessman who is known to oppose the ANC, it doesn’t matter if you are black or talented, you will never get a tender in that municipality. If you examine the folks who get tenders in municipalities, these are people who are a part of the reward system within the politics of the ANC and the politics of the municipality.”

Mashele says this patronage is played out from a local level, right to the very top. “Look at Limpopo at a provincial level where the premier centralised procurement, which only meant that essentially the premier centralised the distribution of patronage. He is a businessman who proudly says: 'I am a business doing business with government.’ There is a whole ring of business people around the premier who always get tenders. It is two-way traffic. If you were to check who contributes to Chancellor House and what tenders these people get, you would be shocked. That is why the ANC will never allow people to know who contributes to Chancellor House, because the dynamic that I am talking about would become apparent,” he says.

The bad news, according to Mashele, is that the system of nepotism and corruption embedded in government will not change until there’s a viable opposition or a surge of political activity in civil society. “Until there is potential for the ruling party to be booted out of power, these guys are going to wallow in a comfortable sense of complacency,” says Mashele, who believes the DA won’t be able to make inroads into the ANC’s support base quickly enough.

“If you take current trends and look at the weakening of the ANC and the rise of the DA, it would – in my view – take another three or four elections before the DA becomes a threat that would topple the ANC. The ANC has been declining since Jacob Zuma came to power, but not significantly enough,” says Mashele, who adds that the hope for the DA would be a massive crisis within the ruling party which could quicken the pace at which the opposition party grows its constituency.

“And the ANC will not just sit back and do nothing, because there are many people in the ANC who are aware of the dangers in the party if the current trajectory were to continue,” says Mashele. He adds: “In fact the danger of materialism and corruption is highlighted in political report after political report, but we have not yet seen the ANC take the political courage to act seriously, especially when it involves people at the top like the president.”

Mashele says the ANC’s lack of political will and courage creates a real danger of a low road scenario for South Africa – one where materialism and corruption create the collapse of morality. He says the role models that youths aspire to in townships and villages today are tenderpreneurs who don’t achieve wealth through academia or hard work, but by political connections and party favours.

“Once you have this situation in society, you’re creating a culture without even realising it. You are saying to younger generations: ‘Don’t go to school and work hard and become educated, and aspire to be a professor, an academic, a teacher or a doctor. There is a shorter way to materialism’. When this thing happens, society is being destroyed. How do you construct a productive society, a society that emphasises the importance of merit, a society that is caring, when materialism as graphic and grotesque as it is today, abounds?” asks Mashele.

The political analyst says when masses lose the will to learn and be productive, and there’s huge inequality between the elite and everyone else, the state inevitably veers to authoritarianism. “The outcome of this system is clear, and there’s evidence of it all over the world. The outcome is a Nigeria where you have a small strata of the super wealthy, making their money through all sorts of underhand dealings. Around them is a sea of poverty, because the economy has literally collapsed. The poor are cursed, the economy becomes informalised, nothing is formal, corruption becomes normalised, morality is thrown out of the window, there is a decay of public institutions and no one has confidence in the state. It is a cocktail for disaster,” says Mashele.

The state then threatens those who want to uncover the rot, and anyone who poses a threat to those who possess power become counter-revolutionaries. “We must expect the worst, and the worst is the deepening of corruption. We have corruption now, but we haven’t seen anything yet. We must expect the worst until ordinary citizens reach that stage when they realise that enough is enough,” he says. That, says Mashele, is when ordinary people will join with civil society to demand change.

Source: Daily Maverick (By MANDY DE WAAL)

Malema cronies looted Limpopo: report

Limpopo-based cronies of ANCYL president Julius Malema allegedly spent millions of rand of taxpayers' money on properties, cars and parties, a weekend newspaper reported. It claimed that engineer Lesiba Gwangwa was at the centre. Gwangwa was Malema's business partner and the sole director of On-Point and SGL Engineering Projects. The two companies were previously or currently owned by Malema and his Ratang Family Trust.

According to the Sunday Independent, both companies have scored more than R400m worth of known Limpopo municipal tenders since 2007. The companies are being investigated for tender fraud and corruption by the SA Revenue Service, public protector Thuli Madonsela and the elite investigating unit, the Hawks. The national government stepped in and placed five departments in Limpopo under administration last month after tender fraud brought the province to the brink of collapse. Madonsela has ordered the provincial roads department to suspend On-Point's participation in the tender awarding process. She is apparently looking into how Gwangwa allegedly forced contractors to sign secret back-to-back agreements which entitled his company to a share of the proceeds of the tenders it awarded. According to analysts quoted by the newspaper, President Jacob Zuma, was aware of what was happening in Limpopo, but was allowing the investigation to take its course rather than recalling the province's political leaders.

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni told the newspaper that the ANC leadership would rather let the investigation expose links between the leadership in Limpopo and the tender irregularities.

"In that manner it would be seen as a technical administrative process that deals with governance and corruption issues without being seen as politically manoeuvred."

Source: Times Live

SIU probes graft and corruption in Limpopo

The treasury has called on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to begin probing some of the damning evidence unearthed by central government's intervention force in Limpopo. A letter of understanding was issued by Lungisa Fuzile, the treasury director general, on January 24, paving the way for the investigators to begin their work. Fuzile confirmed the letter to the Mail & Guardian, but said the treasury was "not in a position to comment on the investigation". He referred the M&G to the SIU, which was not prepared to comment.

This is the first time treasury has commissioned the SIU to investigate irregularities in the province. It follows a decision by the Cabinet on December 8 last year to effectively take over the cash-strapped Limpopo government and bring five of its 11 departments under administration. Within weeks of the books being opened, the province was declared bankrupt and a trail of maladministration and gross abuse of public funds uncovered.

It is expected that there will be considerable overlap between the SIU investigation instigated by treasury and the probes that are already under way into the financial affairs and business dealings of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema who, together with his friend and political ally Premier Cassel Mathale, is highly influential in the province. The two have been linked to a string of companies that have been trading off the public purse for a number of years. Last year the M&G revealed how On-Point Engineering, part-owned by Malema, had secured a programme management contract at the provincial transport department through which tenders were doled out to friends and party cronies, as well as to business partners of Mathale. The M&G later exposed attempts on Malema's part to pressurise staff at the local health department to pay out on multimillion-rand contracts that were being investigated for fraud. Both men have also built impressive property portfolios and lived lavish lifestyles that eventually demanded scrutiny.

The SIU has not been given a deadline to complete the latest probe and it is too early to predict what consequences, if any, its findings might have. However, in a recent radio interview, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said "there certainly will be consequences if there is wrongdoing, including putting people through the necessary disciplinary processes or criminal processes".

It first had to be established "whether the evidence really strongly and decisively takes us in that particular direction". Gordhan is due to brief the National Council of Provinces on the intervention and its progress in Parliament on Thursday.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Criminal case against Malema, others for 'land grab'

Suspended ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has been accused of stealing a prime piece of land in Polokwane, Limpopo in the suburb of Ster Park, police said on Sunday.

Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said Polokwane police and the commercial crimes unit were investigating the case.

Businessman Matane Mphahlele has opened a criminal case against Malema, lawyer Maboku Mangena, Clifford Motsepe, the head of Limpopo's housing department, as well as senior municipal officers, City Press reported.

According to Mphahlele, Malema illegally transferred the plot into his own name in 2007 and resold it the following month for more than three times the price.

The newspaper further reported that Mangena and municipal officials allegedly helped Malema with the transfer. -- Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian

Power, patronage and the provinces

Say what you like about the politics of the national government's intervention in three provinces, one thing is clear: a scaled-down analogue of the eurozone crisis is unfolding within the borders of South Africa. Limpopo literally ran out of money three weeks ago, maxing out its overdraft at the Corporation for Public Deposits and exceeding its half-a-billion-rand facility at First National Bank. The treasury had to move forward its payment on one of the province's regular tranches of funding so that teachers and nurses could be paid.

The province blames unexpected increases in civil service wages and the implementation of the occupation-specific dispensation for health workers. These were provided for at central level, but seem to have been implemented amid real confusion and, on a charitable interpretation, unexpected wage payments in a context of rampant corruption and mismanagement may have finally tipped the provincial fiscus over the edge.

The treasury effected a hostile takeover of the Limpopo this week, placing five key departments under administration. To all intents and purposes the province has been stripped of its basic functions. Premier Cassel Mathale is now a figurehead, presiding over a shell of a government run from Pretoria. No doubt the emergency was real and drastic intervention was warranted, but there is no escaping the fact that the move deprives one of President Jacob Zuma's most important opponents of almost all his power and, crucially, of his patronage machinery.

Supporters of Mathale, Julius Malema and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula are fuming over the coup, which they insist is driven purely by politics. They point to other provinces with large overdrafts and rickety finances that have not suffered the same fate. There is no gainsaying the political advantage secured by Zuma with this move, but Mathale and his government opened themselves up to it by allowing Limpopo's finances to deteriorate beyond the mere mess we have come to expect into real crisis.

In contrast to the takeover of Limpopo moves to stabilise the finances of Gauteng and the Free State, with their Zuma-aligned premiers, look more like friendly bailouts. Gauteng, despite a health service that the treasury described to Cabinet as being in "disarray", will be dealt with via an "agreement" between the province and the national government. And in the profligate, but less disastrous, Free State the intervention is limited to the roads department. Those Gauteng projects that do face major cutbacks date from the tenure as finance MEC of Paul Mashatile, another Zuma opponent. Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, who is at loggerheads with Mashatile, may not be very sorry to see them trimmed or abandoned.

The politics then are real and they are vicious, but so are the impacts of mismanagement, and they stretch deep into other provinces. KwaZulu-Natal and the North West are said by the treasury to be on track for recovery. Meanwhile, in municipalities across the country similar failures are compromising access to clean water, basic infrastructure and housing.

As the treasury warned Cabinet on Monday: "Non-delivery and slow delivery of services poses a security risk for the country." That is a welcome recognition but, if risk is really to be diminished, interventions from the centre will have to move beyond politics.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Scouring of Limpopo: 40 corrupt officials axed

The Limpopo government has dismissed 40 officials it says are involved in criminal and corrupt activities, and blacklisted 44 companies for shoddy tender work, amid claims of that a national anti-corruption team is probing widespread graft in the province. "We have laid off ... 40 officials who were embroiled in allegations of crime and corruption," provincial government spokesperson Tebatso Mabitsela told SABC radio news on Monday. "We've subjected them to disciplinary hearings and we found that they were indeed guilty of crime and corruption and they have been laid off from the administration."

He was responding to weekend newspaper reports that the Limpopo government was being investigated for fraud and corruption worth millions of rands. "We are not aware of any investigations whatsoever but we are saying, as a provincial government, in case this [report of an investigation] ... is true, we would want the Hawks to conduct the investigation without fear or favour." Mabitsela said the provincial government had blacklisted 44 companies for "contravening contractual obligations" and "building shoddy houses to our people in the province".

The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that an anti-corruption task team was investigating the province. Hawks spokesperson Mcintosh Polela said the matter was being "looked into". The Sunday Times said one of the companies under investigation belonged to a cousin of African National Congress Youth League leader Julius Malema. -- Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian

'We can't be seen to be weak': Mantashe takes aim at Malema

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe launched a veiled attack on Julius Malema on Tuesday ahead of the ANC Youth League president's appearance before a disciplinary committee next week. At a press briefing at Luthuli House in Johannesburg following the ANC's special national executive committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend, Mantashe denounced the discipline problems besetting the party. "The NEC decried the crumbling of discipline in the ANC and it has emerged as a serious concern. Our failure to act on these issues will lose us the respect we enjoy in South Africa, the continent and the world," Mantashe said.

Malema, along with his spokesperson Floyd Shivambu, is due to appear before a party disciplinary hearing next week after being charged with misconduct last Friday for comments made on working towards regime change in Botswana. If found guilty, Malema faces being suspended from the party for up to five years, as he already has a suspended sentence against him following sanction last year. Mantashe's comments should come as no surprise as the youth league has been pushing for his ouster -- along with President Jacob Zuma -- at the ANC's next elective conference in Mangaung at the end of 2012.

Mantashe revealed that the NEC decided in its meeting to tackle unlawful business dealings within the ANC, saying it is part of their mandate as the ruling party to stamp out corruption. "It is our revolutionary duty to act against corruption and deal with it decisively -- we can't be seen to be weak," Mantashe said. This has been interpreted as a further stab at Malema, who is facing a flurry of investigations into his business dealings, with specific reference to the Ratanang trust registered in his name. The youth leader claims the trust is used to raise funds for charitable causes but is currently being probed by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela as well as the Hawks on allegations that he receives money through the trust for securing tenders in Limpopo.

Mantashe also attempted once more to quash the debate over who should lead the ANC after Mangaung, saying the discussion would commence at branch level once party leaders have given the process the green light. "The branches will have the opportunity to nominate their preferred candidates at an appropriate time [which] will be decided in due course," Mantashe said.

While not confirming disciplinary action would be taken against anybody discussing succession before the ANC officially declares it is safe to do so, Mantashe said debating the issue is a violation of the party's constitution. "The fact [that] we have to remind everyone is [due to] the temptation for members to jump the gun. We won't discuss leadership issues now and it would be deviant to do so," he said. This is a further swipe at Malema, who has been not only calling for Mantashe's head, but also began rallying support for Zuma to be replaced by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe in Mangaung next year.

When quizzed by journalists about the specifics of the charges against Malema and the forthcoming disciplinary committee hearing, Mantashe would not be drawn into commenting, saying that doing so would prejudice the case. "The ANC will not comment on disciplinary procedures, so don't try to trick us into doing so," he said. Indications are that Malema will face a tough time in staving off disciplinary action, after the Mail & Guardian heard from party insiders that the youth league leader's support within the ANC is waning. The youth league is seeking a meeting with their mother body ahead of the scheduled hearing against their leader in the hopes that a political solution might be found to the situation.

If this does not result in a positive outcome from the league, ordinary youth league members confirmed to the M&G that a march is planned to ANC headquarters on the day of the hearing in a show of support of Malema. Mantashe confirmed the request of a meeting but would not comment on the possibility of it leading to the situation being defused before the hearing. "The process must be allowed to unfold and we will deal with any adventurous actions should they happen," he said.

Source: Mail & Guardian

State's advisers may not interfere, says public protector

Public protector Thuli Madonsela's findings are subject to the Constitution and the law, and state legal advisers have no authority to tell government what to implement, she said on Wednesday. Madonsela said state attorneys have been advising the government against implementing remedial action she recommended. "In the event organs of state are unhappy with our findings and the accompanying remedial action, they should take us to court on review." She said courts were the only institutions that had a final say on whether her findings and the need for remedial action were rational or not.

Madonsela was speaking at a meeting with stakeholders, which included provincial government leaders, local government authorities and civil society in Polokwane. Her spokesperson, Kgalalelo Masibi, said delegates including Limpopo's provincial minister of agriculture, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, and Polokwane mayor Freddy Greaver agreed with Madonsela. "[They said] failure to implement the public protector's remedial action was defeating the institution's purpose of supporting and strengthening constitutional democracy," she said in a statement. "They added that leaders in government had a responsibility to act promptly upon receipt of the public protector's report with a view to ensure administrative justice and accountability."

The meeting formed part of a nationwide road show dubbed The Public Protector Dialogues with the Nation. The road show aimed at soliciting feedback regarding Madonsela's work and highlighting the importance of implementing her suggestions for remedial action.

Source: Mail & Guardian

MEC promises an end to potholes

More than 60 roads with potholes roads in Limpopo are expected to be repaired by the end of this week. Tabling her department's 2011/2012 budget in Lebowakgomo this week, Roads and Transport MEC Pinky Kekana said the projects were part of the department's drive to maintain roads and create jobs for the unemployed.

"The department will spend R60-million on more than 60 pothole projects in all districts. These projects will be completed at the end of this week," said Kekana.

Kekana said the department would spend an additional R200-million on 11 projects aimed at repairing potholes and routinely maintaining roads in the 2011/12 financial year.

"As the responsible authority on secondary and gravel roads, our role will steadily move away from the current practice of reactionary maintenance on repairing potholes to preventative maintenance so as to keep the roads in good condition so that potholes do not develop," she said.

She said it was common sense that preventative maintenance was way cheaper than reactive maintenance.

In preventative maintenance of roads, money is spent on pothole repairs instead of spending it on accidents that could have been prevented through good maintenance of roads.

"It is our collective view that when potholes do occur, they must be properly repaired," Kekana said.

Kekana said the department would spend R452-million on 32 other preventative maintenance projects that have been identified in the province.

She said that an amount of R250-million had also been set aside for infrastructure improvement, including the construction of pedestrian bridges, walkways and an interchange in Botlokwa outside Polokwane.

She said after discussions with the South African National Roads Agency, the department would award the infrastructure contract in June 2011.

"The people of Botlokwa will finally say government has listened to us. We cannot shy away from acknowledging that on a daily basis pedestrians in particular were dicing and risking with their own lives having to cross a busy freeway,” she said.

“We can safely say that when the yellow machines start arriving, that will be the beginning of improved safety for the people of Botlokwa."

Kekana added that the department would complete two bridges that go over the Olifants River. The bridges include Mankele and a bridge between Maredi and Senyatho in the Sekhukhune area, both of which will cost R46-million and R47-million respectively.

"It is with great joy that the pain endured by the people of Mankele and others, of having to cross the Olifants River under very horrendous and risky conditions, is finally coming to an end," she said.

Kekana added that the bridge R24-million between Sibasa, Khalavha, Fondwe, Nzhelele and Musekwaspoort outside Thohoyandou was also near completion.

Source: Polity

Police hunt hitmen

POLICE in Limpopo are searching for three suspects who shot and wounded an off-duty police constable and his girlfriend at Brukedo Lodge in Tshisaulu village near Thohoyandou yesterday.

It is alleged the gunmen were hunting for the girlfriend but the reason why they wanted her dead is not known.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Captain Mashudu Malelo said the suspects held the receptionist hostage and demanded to be shown to the couple's room. He said the men fired at random, shooting the constable and the woman, who are fighting for their lives in the Polokwane Provincial Hospital

Source: The Sowetan

Cop arrested after teen raped

A 45-year-old Sergeant was arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in Senwamokgope near Modjadjiskloof, Limpopo police said on Tuesday. The officer was a court orderly at the Sekgosese Magistrate's Court, Colonel Motlafela Mojapelo said. He allegedly fetched the girl from her home at Rotterdam in Hlanganani, outside Giyani, on December 28, and took her to Senwamokgope police single quarters where she was raped.

The case was reported to the police by her parents after noticing her “strange behaviour”. The officer was then arrested on Monday. The Provincial Commissioner Amon Mashigo said he strongly condemned the alleged conduct of the Sergeant and said he will be dealt with accordingly.

The officer is expected to appear in Sekgosese Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Source: IoL

Coal of Africa feels Green Scorpion sting

Coal of Africa has stopped certain construction activities at its new Vele coal mine in Limpopo after receiving a compliance notice from the department of environmental affairs, the company said on Wednesday. Company CEO John Wallington said in a statement the company "ceased certain activities at Vele". The Green Scorpions had served the company with a compliance notice to stop all construction work on roads at the mine. It also ordered the mine not to use the existing roads, including access roads, for any reason.

Departmental spokesman Albi Modise said on Tuesday the company was also ordered to stop construction on a storage facility and tank for dangerous goods within 24 hours and to empty the facility of fuel within 48 hours. It had to stop any activities within the 1:10 flood line or 32m from any perennial, non-perennial and drainage lines of the Limpopo river. It was also instructed to stop any further installation of water pipelines and to stop using existing pipelines on the mine. The compliance notice further forced it to halt construction on a sludge dam until all authorisation had been obtained from the departments of environmental affairs and water affairs.

Modise said the mine had to appoint an independent environmental consultant within five days to assess the mine's compliance with environmental legislation. Modise said the company was issued with the mining rights for the Vele mine, which was located near the Mapungubwe World Heritage Site and the Kruger National Park, in March, but had never got the go-ahead from the department of environmental affairs to proceed with construction. "They needed to go through an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process and we think they haven't done all they were supposed to do in this process," he said.

Wallington said all the mine's activities were within its mining rights, issued by the department of mineral resources. "The company is nonetheless complying with that Notice as required and confirms it has ceased certain activities at Vele," he said.

He said the company was working with the department of environmental affairs to sort out the problems.

Source: Times Live

Scorpions sting colliery

Senior sources in the Department of Environmental Affairs have revealed that the department cracked down on controversial coal mining near the world heritage site of Mapungubwe last week, ordering the mining company, Coal of Africa, to stop all "illegal" building activities immediately. But Coal of Africa denied receiving an order, saying that the company instead "received regular visits from a number of government departments", including environmental affairs and mineral resources. "Characterising such a visit by the Department of Environmental Affairs as a raid is unjustified," said Riaan van der Merwe, Coal of Africa's chief operating officer. But environmental department spokesperson Roopah Singh confirmed on Thursday a "pre-compliance notice" was issued on June 18. She said Coal of Africa now has to make representations to the department about the mine's transgressions.

The development has again highlighted tensions between environmental affairs and the mineral resources department over mining in this sensitive area of Limpopo. The mining department issued mining rights to Coal of Africa at the beginning of this year. The Mail & Guardian understands that the directive, relating to building at the Vele mine that the department has not approved, followed a raid by the environmental police unit, the Green Scorpions, at the mine earlier this month.

The unit moved in to check whether Coal of Africa had built roads and other structures without the necessary environmental impact assessments. Sources in the department said that the Green Scorpions found several instances where Coal of Africa had ignored departmental regulations. They were also concerned about the clearing of bush on colliery property. In a statement on Thursday Van der Merwe said the company had the necessary authorisation for bush clearing in the area covered by the mining rights. In addition, the necessary permits had been obtained from the national departments of agriculture and forestry and the Limpopo environmental affairs department. He also said that, although the company had not received permission from environmental affairs to build access roads, it was using the existing main road.

The Australian-owned company received a permit earlier this year for its Vele Colliery project next to the Mapungubwe National Park, where the world-famous 800-year-old gold rhino statuette was unearthed in 1933. Though it has not yet started mining, it is constructing the infrastructure required to begin operations later this year.

In May the M&G reported that Coal of Africa had been clearing bush that contained baobab trees. The colliery is 7km from the park's boundaries. The coal-processing plant would be 27km from the world heritage site, Mapungubwe Hill.

Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of environmental affairs, has openly declared her opposition to the mine and her department has refused to approve the environmental impact assessments for roads and fuel storage sites associated with the mine. The company has signed a letter of intent to supply up to 5-million tonnes of coal annually from Vele and its sister project, Makhado, to steel giant ArcelorMittal. Opponents of the mining claim that the coal will be used to drive a coal-fired power station, Mulilo, that is planned for the region.

The department of mining did not respond to questions.

Source: Mail & Guardian
Also see the Save Mapungubwe website

Journalists suspended amid probe

Two Sowetan journalists have been suspended in connection with bribery allegations in separate cases in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, editor Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya said on Monday.

Moya said Alfred Moselakgomo, who is based in Mpumalanga, and Alex Matlala in Limpopo, were merely suspended and not yet found guilty of any wrongdoing.

He said the cases involving the journalists were separate and that there were no allegations that stated the two colluded in any way.

However, Moya said he could not give details of the nature of the allegations against the journalists because investigations were ongoing.

Source: IoL

Malema woes worsen - 4 firms not on CIDB database

NONE of the four companies owned or directed by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is registered with the Construction Industry Development Board. This means that Limpopo municipalities that gave him tenders did so illegally. They did not check with the CIDB before awarding the tenders. The CIDB is the construction industry regulatory body whose board reports to the minister of public works. SGL Engineering Projects, 101 JunJus Trading, Blue Nightingale Trading 61 and Ever Roaring Investments, of which Malema is a co-director, were not on CIDB’s database.

The CIDB was established through the Construction Industry Development Board Act No 38 of 2000.

“Public institutions are responsible for making sure that the companies they award tenders to are graded and regulated by the CIDB,” said spokesperson Katli Molise. According to the Act, no contractor may undertake, carry out or complete any construction works for public sector contracts, awarded in terms of competitive tender or quotation, unless he or she is registered with the CIDB and holds a valid registration certificate issued by the CIDB.

The CIDB requires employers of private and public sector projects to apply to the CIDB for the registration of a construction project within two working days from the date that the contractor’s offer to perform the construction work is accepted by the employer. Every organ of state must, subject to the policy on procurement, apply to the registrar of contractors. CIDB spokesperson Kotli Molise said it was up to a public institution to make sure that its contractors were graded by the CIDB. “Anyone can undertake to provide a construction service to a public institution, but they must comply with industry regulations,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Limpopo government will not take action against any municipalities that had allegedly given tenders to Malema before receiving a formal complaint. A weekend newspaper reported that Malema had benefited in tenders from several municipalities in the province. This was followed by allegations that Malema had got the tenders illegally by intimidating mayors and municipal managers that if they did not tow the line they would be fired. But Phuti Mosomane, spokesperson for Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale, said for as long as there had been no formal complaint lodged by anyone, then there would be no need for the government to act. “We have not received any formal complaint about the allegations of issuing of tenders illegally and there is no basis for us to act,” said Mosomane. He further challenged those with evidence to come forward. Asked if they did not care about government resources being looted in public view, Mosomane could only say “that does not arise because we are not aware of any irregularities being performed in any of our institutions”.

Sello Moloto, leader of the Cope in the Limpopo legislature, said they would lodge a complaint with MEC for local government and housing Soviet Lekganyane. His department is responsible for municipalities.

Source: The Sowetan

Council jobs sold for cash

A MUSINA councillor and a former municipality employee have been arrested for allegedly selling Limpopo government jobs and possessing an illegal firearm. Musina police spokes-person Inspector Sydney Ringane said the two were arrested on Monday after a police investigation linked them to fraudulent activities. He said the two were investigated by the crime intelligence unit after they were suspected of charging money for government jobs.

Ringane said the former council employee, who worked as a human resources officer, resigned his position as when he realise d police were investigating him. The councillor, however, seems to have been oblivious of his pending arrest. Municipal spokesperson Wilson Dzebu confirmed the arrests but refused to be drawn into revealing details.

According to police, the arrests come weeks after job seekers were allegedly forced to bribe a council official so that they could be hired for an advertised road traffic police training programme. The traffic training programme is a government initiative aimed at poverty alleviation. The programme is aimed at people from very poor backgrounds and communities. But officials in Musina allegedly abuse the system for personal gain and force eligible beneficiaries to pay a sum of R1000 to be considered for the programme.

Police said the suspects were still waiting to be charged yesterday, while further allegations of elephant tusk smuggling surfaced against the two as well.

Source: The Sowetan