SIU investigating ANC spindoctor Pule Mabe
Suspicious R16.5m payment for waste collection on ANC official’s patent bikes
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe is the subject of a Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU’s) probe into allegations that a company with links to him received R16.5m in advance payments in a waste-picking contract.
The investigation comes in a week when President Cyril Ramaphosa accounted for the ANC’s role in the capture of the state by, among others, the Gupta brothers during Jacob Zuma’s term as president. Ramaphosa pledged to clean out corrupt elements from the governing party.
Mabe is one of the faces of the organisation.
Enviro Mobi, a company from which Mabe said he had resigned in 2014, won a R27m contract from the department of agriculture in Gauteng to supply 58 waste pickers in Ekurhuleni municipality. The pickers would use 200 three-wheeler motorbikes, known as Karikis.
The Sunday Times understands that the SIU has its sights on Mabe, who owns the patent for the Karikis and would have been paid by Enviro Mobi despite his resignation.
Attended Ace’s hearings
News of the investigation comes as leaders of the ruling party are at each other’s throats about a new rule that compels party leaders facing charges of corruption and serious crimes to step aside or be suspended.
The investigation of Mabe is expected to intensify divisions in the ANC. Mabe has attended secretary-general Ace Magashule’s court appearances.
Should the SIU investigation recommend that law enforcement agencies investigate Mabe, he could face charges and his name might be added to the list of those who need to vacate their positions in terms of the ANC’s step-aside ruling.
At the core of the SIU investigation is the prepayment of about R16.5m to Enviro Mobi just days after the company was awarded the contract. The amount is 65% of the total contract.
One of the investigators said the contract was signed on March 14 2017 and on the same day, the company sent an invoice for the payment.
“The company sent an invoice and then the money was paid into the account 10 days after, R16.5m of the R27m,” said one of the investigators. “There is no way that you would have delivered anything [according to the contract, by then].
“The prepayment has got rules that you need to follow. You don’t do prepayment for everything; there are rules that are set by the Treasury. We will go and understand why that happened.”
The Sunday Times understands that Mabe told those around him that the timing of the SIU investigation was suspect and that it pointed to a “political machination” at play.
“This contract has actually unravelled political differences existing in the [Gauteng] provincial executive committee of the ANC]. This thing is a political football,” said an insider.
Mabe is friends with the MEC for human settlements & co-operative governance, Lebogang Maile, and Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina. Maile and Masina are regarded as Gauteng premier David Makhura’s staunch opponents in the ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee.
Maile, who was MEC of agriculture at the time the tender was issued, is said to be eyeing the position of provincial chair, currently occupied by Makhura.
Mabe allies told the Sunday Times that they regarded the investigation as Makhura’s attempt to deal with his opponents. The request for the presidential proclamation for the SIU to investigate came from the premier’s office.
“If you talk about manipulation of state organs to pursue political agendas, this is it. How do you investigate a company that you’ve already settled with? This is a political machination,” the insider said.
The insider said Mabe told them that he might be targeted to force him to step aside as ANC national spokesperson.
“He said he does not have a problem, that he can be mentioned there, but he is not going to be doing any step aside. There’s nothing wrong what he has done. He is not a director of a company that is trading with the state,” the insider said.
Mabe said he did not want to comment on the SIU investigation.
According to an SIU investigator, there were laws governing prepayments. The investigators were of the view that those laws did not allow for the payment of 65% of the total value of the contract.
“R16m is over 65% of the total value. What if they don’t deliver? What are you going to do? There is no way you can have a prepayment of 65% of the total amount. It doesn’t make sense because then what remains is [little].
“Let’s say they charged you R27m and for them to buy these things is R16m, then you have just given them money to buy those things and what you will be left with will be their profit,” the investigator said.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago would not be drawn on whether the investigation centred on the prepayment. He said he would limit himself to the statement.
The SIU said in its statement that its investigation was aimed at determining whether the procurement and payments made in relation to the three-wheel wastecollection vehicles were done in a manner that was not fair, transparent, or contrary to applicable legislation (or) guidelines issued by the Treasury.
According to Kganyago, the SIU helped the Gauteng government with investigating this contract as far back as 2019.
It had handed a report to Makhura. He said he did not know whether Makhura had acted on it.
“Because of the kind of irregularities that we found, we realised that this thing needs powers of the SIU, but the full powers of the SIU can only be done when there’s a proclamation. Then we said OK, we can’t just leave this thing like this,” Kganyago said.
“Because if we see that people will now have to return money, we can’t now take that matter to the special tribunal because we don’t have the powers to do that [because] it was not under a proclamation investigation, it was a secondment.
“We then applied for a proclamation. It went through the processes and it is only now that it came back.”
Powers to subpoena
Kganyago told the Sunday Times the proclamation gave the SIU powers to conduct a thorough investigation.
“We are not going to cut corners because now we have got powers to subpoena people because when we were in the secondment we did not have those powers. Now we do.
“People need to understand the difference, why we couldn’t do certain things then because we didn’t have all the powers. Now when we call you nicely and you don’t come we can subpoena you, like the Zondo commission does, and if you don’t come when we subpoena you, it becomes a criminal issue,” Kganyago said.
The SIU is also looking into how, just months after the awarding of the R27m contract for 200 Karikis, Enviro Mobi was awarded a further R7.8m to provide an additional 70 Karikis.
“We don’t care about individuals. We are interested in how the company got the tender as well as the payment,” said an SIU investigator. But “there’s no way we’re not going to call him”, the investigator said when asked about Mabe.
Ramaphosa authorised the SIU to subpoena bank statements and cellphone records of all those involved in the contract, including Mabe, and to conduct searches of Enviro Mobi’s premises as well as questioning witnesses.
Because of the kind of irregularities that we found, we realised that this thing needs powers of the SIU, but the full powers of the SIU can only be done when there’s a proclamation. Then we said OK, we can’t just leave this thing like this Kaizer Kganyago, right SIU spokesperson