Bankrupt council gave tenders to MEC’S fiancé
KWAZULU-NATAL MEC Nomusa Dube’s fiancé was awarded several tenders by a bankrupt municipality worth R73.3-million “without following the competitive bidding process”, according to preliminary findings in an auditorgeneral’s report.
A separate tender given to one of businessman Sibusiso Justin Ncube’s companies — which is not being investigated by the attorney-general’s office — is worth R19.4-million and was awarded within two weeks of being advertised.
Dube this week confirmed that an investigation into corruption in Umkhanyakude District Municipality was ongoing.
Several government agencies, including Dube’s department of cooperative governance, are probing the municipality, which borders Mozambique. Some of the tenders were given to Ncube’s companies between April and June last year — at a time when Dube told the provincial legislature in her budget policy speech that her department was “looking strongly at the procurement systems in municipalities, which we regard as a breeding ground for corruption”.
Signed invoices, contracts, and the attorney-general’s report reveal that the municipality dished out three contracts to Ncube’s companies, Sinosa Construction and Brand Partners.
The attorney-general’s final management report, released exclusively to Dube’s department and the municipality on June 30 last year, also showed that the two companies had already been paid R43.4-million.
However, Dube said this week that she was not aware of the findings in the report or her fiancé’s business interests in the municipality.
“This is the first time I’m being asked questions about these companies. I don’t know his accounts, I don’t know his companies . . . as an African, you can’t ask your [relative] how many companies they have or question the amount of work they are doing. I am not aware of these allegations,” she said.
She added she would take action against Ncube if the allegations were true.
“My relationship cannot interfere with my work,” she said.
Ncube said: “I would like to categorically place on record that my private life and relationship with Dube [do] not in any way relate to the issues at hand and, in my opinion, such unfounded inferences are regarded as defamatory.”
The couple, who often share a stately home on a private 30 000m² estate in Gillits, one of Durban’s most sought-after suburbs, hosted friends and relatives at a traditional wedding ceremony last month.
According to deeds records, Ncube bought the R9.5-million estate in August last year, with a R3.4-million cash deposit. He also owns a R3.9-million home in the exclusive Kyalami Estate, north of Johannesburg.
Ncube said all his dealings with the municipality were above board and that R5.6-million worth of tenders awarded to Brand Partners had been advertised in two newspapers.
Auditor-general spokesman Africa Boso said: “[Final] management reports are internal documents between the attorney-general and those we audit, in this case, the municipality you are referring to.”
The report does not implicate Dube in any wrongdoing.
She said she had not received any forensic reports into the alleged maladministration and financial mismanagement in the municipality. “The investigation is still ongoing . . . [but] I do need to review the progress.”
She said she and her fiancé had “never discussed” municipal tenders awarded to him.
Sinosa Construction was expected to supply the municipality with water pipes in a contract worth R69.4-million. It received a R39.6-million advance, even though the pipes had yet to be delivered.
Ncube said the payment was used as a deposit to secure the pipes from his suppliers.
Municipal spokesman Bongisisa Dlamini said the tender was rushed “due to poor spending on infrastructure projects [and the municipality] stood the risk of forfeiting this budget back to the national Treasury”.