The mayor of Ehlanzeni district municipality in Nelspruit, Jeri Ngomane, should be disciplined for his part in giving council tenders to his “wives”, a forensic investigation ordered by the Mpumalanga department of local government and housing has recommended.
The probe, conducted by auditing firm Kwinana and Associates, has confirmed Mail & Guardian reports that Ngomane had relationships with women who benefited from council tenders. Ngomane and the women had at the time denied relations.
The M&G last June named Nomsa Jocolina Nxumalo, Millicent Sibiya and Sanet de Klerk — all of whom had had relationships with Ngomane — as having companies that benefited from the council’s tender processes.
The report, released at the beginning of July, confirmed that Nxumalo and De Klerk’s entities had won tenders but that Ngomane had failed to declare his interests in the companies.
It further found that “Nomsa Jocolina Nxumalo and Patricia Khoza are directors of Multilayer Trading 929 cc and were awarded [a] tender for R132 467,15. From the response to the allegations levelled against the executive mayor, he does not deny having a relationship with Nomsa Jocolina Nxumalo. Therefore we can conclude that there is a relationship between the executive mayor and Nxumalo.”
Kwinana found the same with regard to De Klerk’s Sisonke Development Planners.
The M&G also revealed that Ngomane had received R24 000 from construction company owner Sizwe Zulu after Ngomane’s council had awarded Zulu’s company the contract to build stadiums. The council had by then paid R444 089 to Zulu’s company.
Kwinana found that “the schedule of payments by the municipality to [Zulu’s company] suggest that the mayor had a relationship with the businessman after the tender had been awarded. We could not, however, establish if there is a link between the award and the amount paid to the mayor.”
Ngomane said at the time that the money was payment for a minibus he had sold to Zulu.
The audit found that “there is a possibility of conflict of interest” on Ngomane’s part because the alleged payment for the car was made after Zulu was awarded the tender.