Gumede: State reveals corruption allegations
FORMER eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and her supporters were hoping that yesterday’s appearance at the Durban Commercial Crimes Court would be a formality.
The expectation was that the National Prosecuting Authority would once again fail to hand over their evidence, detailing the fraud and corruption charges against Gumede and her co-accused, forcing the case to be struck off the role.
Instead the State handed over a 347-page indictment to Gumede, her co-accused and their lawyers.
The list of the accused includes four companies, Ilanga Lamahlase CC (Ilanga) owned by Mzwandile Dludla, El Shaddai owned by Prabagaran Pariah, Uzuzinikele Trading 31 CC owned by Zithulele Mkhize and Omphile Thabang Projects owned by Bongani and Khoboso Dlomo.
Combined, the State alleged that from late 2016 to late 2018, they committed 2 786 acts which are deemed to be illegal.
Most serious in these incidents was money laundering and failure to prevent corruption.
Judging from the information in the indictment, it appears that while the State has charged 21 people (including the four companies) in total, it is gunning for nine “main role-players” with Gumede, her close confidant Mondli Mthembu, senior supply chain officer at eThekwini municipality Sandile Ngcobo, and former head of “special projects” Robert Abbu among them.
The charge sheet reveals how Gumede and her relatives scored cash in kickbacks which they later spent building homes, visiting optometrists and maintaining their luxury vehicles.
The matter was heard by magistrate Dawn Somaroo and it has since been moved to the Durban High Court for a pre-trial hearing, with the first sitting billed for June 14.
In its indictment, the State starts by outlining how the grand scheme to loot the coffers of the municipality started late in August 2016, shortly after Gumede took over as mayor after a bruising political battle with former mayor, James Nxumalo.
It alleges that after donning the mayoral chain, Gumede spoke about “radical economic transformation” and said the policy would be explained to ANC councillors by Mthembu.
It further alleged Gumede and Mthembu then co-opted other councillors to make sure that they benefited in the awarding of the R320 million for Durban Solid Waste.
When the grand corruption finally took off, the State alleges that Abbu, Gumede and city manager Sipho Nzuza regularly communicated and discussed tenders.
At some point, Gumede’s rent at one of her palatial homes in Phoenix, north of Durban, was paid for by one of the four contractors (Ilanga) that scored a tender.
The spokesperson of ANC in KZN, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, said they had not gone through the indictment and could not comment on the allegations.
IN THE next few months President Cyril Ramaphosa will take off his suit, don a T-shirt and a sweater, and hit the campaign trail.
Covid-19 notwithstanding, Ramaphosa will be joined by an army of ANC “volunteers” hoping to make the case for why voters should mark their crosses next to Khongolose (as the party is colloquially known) at the local government elections.
Ramaphosa and the ANC’s message might find receptive ears, and the party can be assured of baked-in support, but as we’ve witnessed over the past 20 years, every election brings diminishing returns. A cursory reading of headlines shows that the ANC long ago drifted from the ideals of Chief Albert Luthuli, OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela.
In Limpopo, the ANC’s treasurer, Danny Msiza, and former ANC Youth League leader in the province Kabelo Matsepe have been indicted for essentially looting impoverished municipalities in the province to shore up the finances of VBS Mutual Bank.
For their efforts, they allegedly got millions in kickbacks which were spent on cars and, in the case of Msiza, a gastric band surgery to reduce his weight.
All this juxtaposed with poor VBS depositors standing in long queues, hoping to withdraw their life savings as the bank collapsed.
In Durban, former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, along with several others, will finally go on trial, charged with 2 786 counts of fraud and corruption in connection with the city’s irregular 2017 Durban Solid Waste contract, the value of which exceeded R430 million.
Gumede, now a member of the KZN legislature, has previously insisted, to her supporters outside of court, that she is being targeted for championing “Radical Economic Transformation”, tapping into a vein of the ANC’s factional politics.
The voters will ultimately decide whether to return the ANC to power in eThekwini and those municipalities looted in Limpopo.
But perhaps a cautionary tale for the ANC should be the Western Cape.
Since it lost power, first in Cape Town and then the provincial legislature in 2009, it has become rudderless.
Without patronage to dispense, the Western Cape ANC is propped up by whichever faction requires its support at a national conference.