5 tender firms face blacklist
New eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede says her mother taught her important values that have made her into the leader she is today, writes
THE five construction companies accused of tender collusion in city contracts worth more than R750 million could soon be blacklisted.
Early this month The Mercury blew the lid on a KPMG investigation into suspected cover-quoting between the five companies – AKRT Investments, Tauris Garden Trading 500, Mogeena Building Construction, Taset 13 and Centwise 157.
KPMG’s report on the matter, which The Mercury has seen, details how the five companies shared married directors, common staff and contact details, and shared the workload and remuneration for some of the contracts.
eThekwini broke its silence on the matter at the weekend, with new mayor Zandile Gumede vowing to deal with what promises to be her first headache since taking over the reins from James Nxumalo last week.
Gumede was speaking to The Mercury in a wide-ranging interview on Friday.
“I’ve not been the mayor and there are issues that are dealt with at the level of mayor. All I’ll be doing is meeting the officials and asking them to give me the details so I can understand,” she said.
However, Gumede said, there was “no doubt” that her administration would “deal” with companies which had not complied with the city’s supply chain management policies, “and put us at a level that we aren’t happy with”.
She did not say which officials would brief her, or when.
“If I get the facts, blacklisting will take place. Let me get the report and I’ll give you a proper answer,” she said.
Emphasising her stance with a general statement, she said: “Without singling out any company, whichever company colludes and does things wrong, if it is formal, from proper structures, we’ll deal with them, because we must root out corruption that we suspect.”
The four-month investigation, commissioned by the city in January last year, was completed in April last year, and makes several damning findings against the companies, including allegations of forged signatures on tender applications and of false financial information submitted to boost Construction Industry Development Board gradings.
But opposition parties were not convinced about Gumede’s position on the report. The IFP said it would give her the chance to get to grips with the details, while the DA’s provincial and eThekwini caucus leader, Zwakele Mncwango, said Gumede’s stance was “nonsense”.
It is unclear when KPMG presented the 209-page forensic report, dated July 10, 2015, to the city. Approached for comment early this month, directors and staff of the companies said they were aware of the investigation, but had not seen the final report.
Mncwango said Gumede first needed to explain why the ANC withdrew the Municipal Public Account Committee’s (MPAC) report into the matter in December.
“She can’t just come and claim that she’ll do something now. MPAC deals with findings, and she interfered when MPAC presented the findings to council, as chairwoman of the ANC (eThekwini region). She can’t come now that she’s the mayor and say she’ll do something,” he said.
Mncwango said MPAC investigated the matter and made rulings independently.
“I don’t need to be familiar with the matter to support a matter,” he said. He accused her of “trying to delay” the process.
Mdu Nkosi of the IFP said the problem was that there was no transparency in eThekwini.
“We have reasons for scepticism; the city manager doesn’t respond to queries. He doesn’t even acknowledge e-mails,” he said.
However, he was hopeful that Gumede would stay true to the promises she had made in her inaugural speech.
“We hope what she said in her speech will translate into action. What’s crippling eThekwini is that things are happening behind (closed doors) and no one knows what’s happening… We are watching her,” he said. sihle.manda@inl.co.za
@Sihle_MG
IT IS just before 12.30pm on Friday and Zandile Gumede, the eThekwini Municipality’s first female mayor since the transition to democracy – and the first since Margaret Winter (1992-1992) – is about to field questions in her umpteenth interview of the day.
One after the other, journalists have, since 5am, been firing questions and dissecting Gumede’s responses – unshaken by the impressive, yet warm, figure.
More journalists patiently wait their turn in the mayoral parlour, which is crawling withbodyguards, new councillors requesting meetings and staff shuffling around office equipment and furniture.
Gumede, whose communications team insisted on questions being sent before the 15-minute interview, welcomes The Mercury with a broad smile, and admits being exhausted
“But I’ve just spoken to you,” Gumede, 55, protests, confusing this reporter with one who interviewed her a few minutes earlier.
With the confusion put to bed and the dictaphone recording, Gumede, a mother of four, begins her story on her rise to the top.
“My maiden name is Majola; born and bred in Amaoti, Inanda, Durban.”
“My mother, uMaMkhwanazi, played a big role before I came to the ANC. The way you bring up your child is the way that your child is going to be.
“I remember when we were all young, my mother used to go and sell beans, amadumbe and sweet potatoes because she used to plough. If she got home, and (we were home) from school, and the house and the dishes were not cleaned, she would not look at an individual but the collective,” she reminisced.
She got her own strict demeanour from her parents.
Gumede, who is known as “Mkabayi”, a “tough as nails” taxi boss character on Mzansi Magic’s Isibaya series, or “umama”, reluctantly reveals that prior to being approached by eThekwini ANC regions to stand as mayoral candidate, she had no ambitions of being the city’s first citizen.
“Branches of eThekwini, by the time I was elected chairwoman of the region, kept on saying ‘we wish you could become the mayor of eThekwini because you’re the one person who can listen to us, a person who doesn’t look down on us, a person like you can take us to higher strides’,” she said.
“I thought it was just a wish that could never happen. I have to be honest with this: it was never in my veins to become mayor.
“I always encourage unity and I thought that the comrades who have been serving as mayors and others could come on board. I am not too high on positions, but I work hard for the poor communities.”
Hunched in her chair, Gumede speaks about ambitious plans to unite the fractured relations within the ANC and its alliance partners – the SACP and Cosatu.
The divisions were formed as she and former mayor and KwaZulu-Natal SACP chairman James Nxumalo tussled for the coveted seat for ANC regional chairperson.
“I was groomed in a way that unity is the core in whatever you do as a human being. The fortunate part is that I’ve been in this organisation – the ANC – since I was born,” she says.
“If I look back, I realise that leaders are born and not made because whatever my mother taught us in those days, it is working today.”
Her mother, she said, “used to say if you’re a young woman, you are supposed to work hard for yourself and not rely on the person you’ll be getting married to.
“This will break you should difficult times come – you must be able to stand for yourself and do things in a manner that you are able to succeed.”
She also said she had inherited her mother’s generosity and she would incorporate this in her role as mayor.
“As a family, my father was a policeman and he used to come home with food (monthly), and my mother used to pack small parcels and we used to give them to the poor families.
“The spirit of ubuntu really prevailed in my mother and it carries me to where I am today.
“My family was not poor; we were okay, but my mother used to listen to people when they had problems, especially young wives having marital problems. She used to advise them and talk to their husbands.
“If I look back, it’s clear to see that I inherited those genes. I would never ever pass anyone who says they have problems.
I give them have,” she said.
Her friends often complained about her giving nature and former mayor Obed Mlaba used to call her old office “kwamthandazi” (the prophet’s place).
“I am passionate. It’s in me, it’s not that I am doing it for the sake of doing it. I must be able to listen, advise, even if I won’t be assisting that person, but by just listening they will be satisfied.”
She was, however, quick to point out that this did not mean Nxumalo did not possess whatever
Ithese qualities. “James was so good at his on level, but my gift is different,” she said.
Having been entrusted with the mammoth responsibility of leading eThekwini, the country’s second biggest economy, Gumede has said her message for herself was: “at no stage should I fail, I must work hard”.
But to achieve this she will need to surround herself with an equally ambitious team, as she cannot effect change as an individual.
Her leadership prowess has already been shown, less than a week in office, as she surprised even her own supporters with the people she had a hand in bringing to the executive committee.
“Other people were saying ‘why is Mam’ Zandile Gumede bringing back Fawzia Peer?’ because she was on the other side (Nxumalo’s camp). ‘Why is she taking in SACP and Sanco (South African National Civic Organisation) to be part of exco?’.
“I am doing that just to show people that unity is strength. If you are deployed in a position of power, just know ukuthi akukhona kini (you’re not entitled) – you must do things correctly so that other people can be motivated and realise that unity can be achieved,” she said.
If we start in exco, she said, “that can trickle down to communities” and could see the SACP and Sanco come together.
Quizzed on the strength of her executive committee, she was adamant that those lacking experience would rise to the occasion.
“I was not born being a chair of a committee. I was deputy chair for Nomusa Dube when she was chair of the Masakhane committee (now governance).
“The capacity I’ve gained through training and workshops assisted me,” she said, adding that each of the six ANC exco members brought different skills.
Elaborating on her plans for her exco, she said she wanted the five committees “to talk to one another”.
“We want to streamline committees to the levels of provincial and national government needs,” she said.
And as the interview drew to a close, Gumede readied herself with a smile for the next journalist waiting outside her door.