699 Former ANCYL president Julius Malema listen to miners at Aurora mine in Springs after they invited to listen to their problems. 300812. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu 699 Former ANCYL president Julius Malema listen to miners at Aurora mine in Springs after they invited to listen to their problems. 300812. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu
Johannesburg - Julius Malema’s cousin Tshepo and the former ANC Youth League leader’s businessman ally, Steve Bosch, have benefited from the allegedly unlawful and corrupt tender awarded to On-Point Engineers.
This is according to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s provisional report into allegations that Malema had used his political power to influence the awarding of tenders in Limpopo. The report said On-Point had awarded contracts to Tshepo’s Arandi Trading Enterprises and Bosch Sizani Buildit.
This took place after On-Point was awarded a R52 million project management unit (PMU) contract by the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport in 2009, the report said.
Tshepo and Bosch’s involvement in the contract On-Point awarded means they could join Malema and 12 others in the accused box when they appear before the Polokwane Circuit Court of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. The group face charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Arandi and Sizani were awarded the tenders after the head of department of the Limpopo Roads and Transport department, Ntau Letebele, irregularly appointed On-Point’s employees to be part of the committee that evaluated the contract.
This was despite the contract between the department and On-Point making no provisions for the company employees to be part of the bid evaluation committee, Madonsela said.
The bid in respect of which a Mrs Nake and a Mr Mamabolo (the employees) were involved in the bid evaluation committee, including those of Sizani Buildit and Arandi Trading Enterprise, related to qualities of materials that did not require their technical expertise.
“Their appointment, furthermore, raised the risk profile of the procurement process and the involvement of the PMU in the selection of the contractors,” she said.
The two employees’ appointment to serve on the committee had amounted to a conflict of interest on the part of On-Point because they had awarded contracts that the company was supposed to supervise.
Madonsela said she could not find any justifiable reason why the department’s officials could not have been appointed to serve on the committee.
Madonsela blasted Letebele’s role as amounting to maladministration and improper conduct.
A senior Limpopo politician aligned with Malema said any person linked to the firebrand “businesswise faced arrest”.
The politician added: “Those arrested will include one MEC. They want to take over the provincial government, arrest people en masse and then force [Limpopo Premier] Cassel Mathale to resign. They want to say ‘there is no longer government in Limpopo, so you must resign’.”
While Madonsela could not find evidence of Malema’s involvement in the awarding of the corrupt tenders, she said he had improperly benefited to the tune of R2m from the “unlawful, fraudulent and improper conduct of On-Point”.
He had benefited through his Ratanang Family Trust, while his former business partner and On-Point CEO, Lesiba Gwangwa, had also benefited through his family trust.
Madonsela suggested that the Ratanang and Gwangwa family trusts were nothing more than vehicles created to launder money.
She said Gwangwa’s evidence of “how and by whom it was decided that On-Point should pay monthly dividends to the Ratanang Family Trust and make payments to the Gwangwa Family Trust furthermore suggested that the payments made to these trusts were for the direct benefit of persons other than the beneficiaries, and that the trusts were merely used as vehicles for the transfer of funds obtained by an unlawful process”.
Among other findings, Madonsela found that On-Point had fraudulently misrepresented its credentials, entered into “corrupt back-to-back agreements with the companies that benefited from the contract awarded, and that the Ratanang and Gwangwa family trusts had improperly benefited from the contract.
She called for action against the company’s shareholders, the cancellation of the tender and for law enforcement agencies to charge some of the beneficiaries criminally.
piet.rampedi@inl.co.za
The Star