ANC patron gets R77m tender for cops’ masks
He’s also under SIU scrutiny for dodgy Giyani water project
● The police awarded a multimillion-rand mask tender to an ANC donor who is being probed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for irregularities in connection with the R2.7bn Giyani water project.
In April, the police gave LTE Consulting a R77m tender to supply 3-million masks. LTE is owned by Thulani Majola, who is at the centre of the SIU investigation of how a project to supply water to villagers in Giyani, Limpopo, ballooned from R100m to R2.7bn — and is still incomplete.
Bank statements seen by the Sunday Times show that on April 15 the police paid LTE R6.4m, followed by R70.6m on April 24. On July 6, Majola, a regular ANC donor, made two payments of R500,000 to the party. The payments were referenced as “African National Congress”.
In a telephone conversation, Majola told the Sunday Times the R1m was a donation to the ANC’s Progressive Business Forum. “I am a member of the PBF and there is nothing wrong with a donation to the ANC.”
He said there was no link between the donation and the PPE tender, nor to the other contracts his company had been awarded by government departments and state entities. “I delivered all 3-million masks without any problems,” he said.
In a follow-up written statement, Majola said: “For the record, in April 2020, LTE along with hundreds of other central supplier database-registered suppliers and service providers, participated in a request for quotations [RFQ] process for the delivery of various PPE to the South African Police Service.
“As it was an RFQ, there was no tender value. All suppliers were requested to quote on the various items and as such, LTE quoted for the delivery of masks at the then Treasury-regulated price for masks as per Treasury’s guidelines.
“LTE’s quotation was adjudicated and accepted and subsequently a purchase order was issued to LTE for the supply of 3-million masks.”
Majola said LTE was not one of the companies being investigated by the Hawks for possible fraud, corruption and price-gouging in the supply of masks, sanitisers and other Covid-19-related goods.
“I know that there are several companies under investigation, but I am not one of them,” he said. “I have been to the police’s procurement headquarters in Silverton to find out if I am under investigation. They told me that I am not. There is actually a list of all the companies that are under investigation and my name is not there.”
Hawks spokesperson Brig Hangwani Mulaudzi would not comment on whether LTE was being probed. “The Hawks are not in the business of giving blow-by-blow accounts of investigations as they unfold,” he said.
The Hawks are also investigating allegations that police officials did not follow procurement processes when awarding PPE tenders. At least four contracts totalling more than R540m are being analysed, and in the past three months the Hawks have raided a number of PPE suppliers and seized cellphones, laptops, invoices, bank statements and purchase orders.
Police spokesperson Brig Vish Naidoo declined to comment on the LTE issue.
Bank statements seen by the Sunday Times show that in the past year LTE has been paid hundreds of millions of rands by human settlements departments in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State; the Ekurhuleni and Mangaung metros; the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent; Airports Company SA; and the Coega Development Corporation.
Human settlements in Gauteng paid LTE more than R230m, Ekurhuleni about R120m and human settlements in KZN about R58m.
Gauteng human settlements spokesperson Castro Ngobese said the payments related to the Syferfontein mega housing development on the west rand. LTE received the tender six years ago, he said.
The department had outsourced the compilation of a due diligence report on the LTE appointment that revealed the procurement process was correctly followed, Ngobese said.
Ekurhuleni spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said LTE’s payments related to tenders for a technical resource team and alternative building technologies. In the former, awarded in November 2016, LTE was consulting. In the latter, awarded in October 2017, it was responsible for consulting, co-ordinating the project and appointing service providers.
Dlamini said the metro was not aware of the SIU investigation when it considered the tenders, but he said the tenders were above board.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said that in May the unit received allegations of corruption in PPE procurement in the police and referred these to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
“We received the allegations around May 2020 and it was before we received the proclamation [authorising an SIU investigation].
“Since we did not have a proclamation, we referred the matter to Ipid and the Hawks were investigating the allegations also.”
In June, President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption in PPE procurement across the government.
Kganyago said the Giyani investigation had been completed and the SIU was now undertaking an exercise to determine if the government had received value for the R2.7bn spent on the project.
In 2016, then president Jacob Zuma authorised the SIU to investigate allegations of irregularities, mismanagement, fraud and corruption on the project.
Two years earlier, at the insistence of then water & sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane, Lepelle Northern Water awarded LTE an emergency R100m contract to supply water to a number of villages.
Lepelle later bolstered LTE’s contract with a series of bulk water projects, allegedly without advertising tenders.
Majola appointed his one-time friend Simbi Phiri, owner of construction firm Khato Civils, to lay more than 340km of bulk water pipes.
After completing more than 300km, Khato Civils abandoned the site in 2018 after the department of water & sanitation went bankrupt and failed to pay the company.