KwaZulu-Natal prisons boss may have laundered R16m — SIU report
A hard-hitting Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe has alleged a KwaZulu-Natal prisons boss may have laundered more than R16m through casinos and bought three properties for cash over 18 months — all while being embroiled in the awarding of 19 irregular tenders.
But KwaZulu-Natal prisons head Mnikelwa Nxele, who former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi testified received R57,000 a month from the corruptionaccused facilities management company in exchange for his support, is not going down without a fight.
He has successfully challenged his suspension, initiated by the correctional services department in response to the findings contained in the SIU investigation report, in the Durban labour court. The department is now seeking to appeal that decision and Nxele remains suspended on full pay until that process is finalised.
The recently released findings made against Nxele emanate from an April 2018 proclamation issued by President Cyril Ramaphosa, in which he mandated the SIU to investigate the department’s procurement of “perishable provisions, food, toiletries, catering, marquee fire and coal” in respect of 20 tenders. These multimillionrand tenders were awarded between 2012 and 2018.
That investigation found that the correctional services KwaZulu-Natal sub-bid adjudication committee, under Nxele’s leadership, had irregularly awarded 19 of the tenders under investigation by choosing bidders whose offers did not have the highest score and which were sometimes significantly more expensive than their competitors.
The department’s own investigation endorsed these findings and concluded that the adjudication committee had “unfairly favoured certain suppliers in the awarding of bids”.
In response to questions from Business Day, Nxele stressed that he was not the only person on the committee, “yet you are presented with irregularities as if it was a oneperson committee”.
He is also adamant that the R16m he is alleged to have laundered through various
KwaZulu-Natal casinos and the three properties he bought for cash between May 2015 and December 2016 “have absolutely nothing to do with alleged irregularities and the proclamation itself except that some want to conveniently link these three unrelated issues”.
The SIU investigation found that Nxele had failed to declare his three properties, valued at a total R3.5m, in his asset declaration to the department of correctional services — a finding he disputes.
“The three properties were voluntarily declared in both my vetting and financial disclosures,” he told Business Day.
The SIU also found that Nxele had not declared the multimillion-rand income he had received through his gambling activities. According to the SIU, “the frequency of this benefit may well be tantamount to a remunerative income”.
Nxele maintains he has not been provided with the SIU report and cannot comment on its findings at this stage.
“I am concerned that I don’t have the information you are relying on which may be prejudicial, defamatory and libellous if it is not truthful and factual,” he stated.
In response to questions from Business Day, the department of correctional services said justice minister Ronald Lamola had received the SIU’s report on the correctional services tender irregularities and “has directed that its recommendations be implemented expeditiously”.
“At the time of receiving the report, the contracts in question had already expired. The department is currently occupied with implementing various recommendations some pertain to disciplinary hearings for implicated individuals”, the department said.
This legal saga, which has seen Nxele pitted against national commissioner of correctional services Arthur Fraser in multiple court battles, has again raised concerns that the administration of SA prisons is fraught with maladministration, irregularity and alleged corruption — with little criminal or disciplinary action being taken against those implicated in wrongdoing.
The governing ANC itself was also said to be a major beneficiary of Bosasa’s largesse. But it now appears the rot inside correctional services may go far beyond the Bosasa revelations.
The commission of inquiry into state capture chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo has heard of evidence from a number of former Bosasa employees, including Agrizzi, who testified that the company had bribed many ANC officials with cash, gifts and other benefits to secure lucrative contracts with the departments of correctional services and justice.