Miserable and in debt due to state blunders
Tuswa rues the day she bid for government PPE tender
What started as an exciting R2m business venture with the government has sunk an Eastern Cape family deep in debt.
Abongile Tuswa, 34, the director of Malihlume Services based in Mthatha, is facing a R1m debt while her student accommodation business has also taken a knock because of Covid-19.
Since the beginning of the year, Tuswa has been embroiled in a tussle with the Eastern Cape department of health over R1m she is owed after the cancellation of a sixmonth contract worth R2m that she was awarded in June last year.
The emergency tender was to source and supply the department with 25,000 face shields from July 1 to December 31, and she was supposed to be paid within 30 days after each delivered order.
“At that [stage] there was a huge demand for face shields and
“I had called suppliers in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape to secure stock.
I used my own money to buy stock. My mother gave me R400,000 and I also got a R600,000 loan from D-Tree [a business lending firm] and some friends and other family members also funded me.
“With that money I managed to buy stock for three months and also cover transportation and storage without receiving any payments from the department.
“I was working under the assumption that I’d be paid in the last month of the contract,” said Tuswa.
The big demand for personal protective equipment also made it difficult to service the tender with a single once-off order and Tuswa would make weekly and bi-weekly deliveries to the department’s depots around the province.
In November, she called the department requesting a delivery address for their last stock but she said she was told that her contract had been canwe celled.
She also learnt that another company had been given the contract.
After not getting satisfactory answers, she escalated her grievances to the head of the department, premier Oscar Mabuyane’s office, the presidential hotline and to the public protector, which is currently investigating the matter.
In May, the department paid her R1m, which Tuswa used to pay a portion (R400,000) of her loan with D-Tree, settled her mother’s loan and some that she took from friends and relatives.
“Only 10% of it came back to me.
My husband and I were already living in debt. We had to close a new business we had started in Bloemfontein so that can put food on the table. We had to let go of staff.
“I still have 11,000 face shields locked in a storage, which I pay for monthly.
“The loan with D-Tree accumulates about R50,000 interest every month. My debt currently stands at R700,000. Even if I were to be paid the R1m that I’m owed today, that money would be used to settle debt,” said Tuswa.
She said the tender had left her with many regrets.
“In my initial calculation I was supposed to have profited R600,000 after raising R1.4m capital. But here I am miserable and in debt. I will continue to do business with government because the state is our biggest customer. Black businesses don’t have a choice but to trade with government.”