‘Gone underground’: No one has been able to contact former Umgeni Water chief executive Thami Hlongwa (above) after Sibonelo Shinga was killed. Last year Shinga allegedly treated Hlongwa to a birthday party
The former chief executive officer of Umgeni Water Amanzi, Thami Hlongwa, appears to have gone into hiding in the wake of the assassination of information technology tenderpreneur Sibonelo Shinga in Durban last month.
Shinga, 51, the owner of Raminet Technologies and MPS Strategic Solutions, was shot dead under mysterious circumstances at the beginning of February while en route to King Shaka International Airport after attending a family funeral in Durban.
The businessman was at the centre of allegations of the capture of Umgeni Water and Hlongwa in the months before his death.
Shinga, a former chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal tender board who was politically connected, worked as a mining executive before entering the information technology industry.
Raminet Technologies first began working with Umgeni Water as an implementing agent for controversial technology firm EOH Holdings back in 2017.
The following year, EOH ceded the business to Raminet Technologies, which now is the main Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) support service for Umgeni Water.
The service is the bedrock on which the water entity’s business processes exist.
But, in 2019, after an investigation into corrupt public sector contracts, EOH blacklisted Raminet Technologies.
“EOH wishes to confirm that Raminet Technologies was one of the companies that were identified in the EOH ENSafrica investigation on corrupt public sector contracts,” a spokesperson for the company said.
“Post this investigation, EOH blacklisted Raminet, and there is no current active business relationship between Raminet and EOH,” the spokesperson said.
EOH had been cooperating with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in their broader investigation into the department of water and sanitation.
“As has been disclosed previously and at the state of capture commission of inquiry, EOH is working with the SIU to reach an amicable and fair settlement to compensate for any damages that the state may have incurred because of the corruption and fraud perpetrated by third parties and ex-employees of EOH,” the spokesperson said.
Water woes: KZN residents with water delivered from a tanker. Umgeni Water which supplies 11-million people with water, has been rocked by leadership changes and allegations of corruption. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
EOH did not say how much the corrupt at Raminet Technologies amounted to.
A year after Raminet Technologies was blacklisted by EOH, claims of wrongdoing at Umgeni, which supplies about 11-million people in KwaZulu-Natal with water, then emerged. Two rival groups at the entity wrote to the minister of water and sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, asking for an investigation into Shinga, Hlongwa and Reshebile Aviation and Security Services.
Among the allegations against Shinga, sent to Sisulu last year, is that MPS Strategic Solutions received a R54-million three-month social facilitation contract and a further R87-million for an eight-month security assessment. Neither Raminet Technologies nor MPS have a history in the security industry.
The Umgeni Water employees also raised concerns with Sisulu about the water entity signing off on additional payments to Reshebile Aviation and Security Services, whose R220-million security tender was declared unlawful by the high court in Pietermaritzburg in July.
Umgeni Water was given 10 months to find a new service provider but has not done so.
Earlier this month, Sisulu’s spokesperson, Steve Motale, said he was not aware of the problem and that Sisulu had not received correspondence from Umgeni Water staff members.
Umgeni Water spokesperson Shami Harichunder said Raminet Technologies had begun providing SAP services after ceding the contract from the main service provider.
“The disclosure of Raminet Technologies’ blacklisting by EOH has come as surprise and was unexpected. Umgeni Water had been unaware that Raminet Technologies was among some EOH business associates against whom action had been taken,” he said. “To the best of our knowledge, no formal communication had been received by Umgeni Water from the parties directly associated with the matter.”
Harichunder said Umgeni Water acting chief executive Nomalungelo Mkhize had ordered an investigation to find out the full facts of the matter after the revelation that Raminet Technologies had been blacklisted.
Employees also claimed in the letter to Sisulu that Shinga paid for an extravagant birthday party for Hlongwa in Cape Town last year.
Hlongwa, the former chief financial officer of KwaZulu-Natal’s cooperative governance and traditional affairs ministry, resigned in 2019, days before releasing the water entity’s financial results.
He had been the subject of an internal investigation into his relationship with Shinga at the time and has also been investigated by the SIU about alleged corruption at Umgeni Water, whose board was dissolved last year by Sisulu.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said that although the investigative body had not “formally interviewed” Hlongwa, it had “interacted with him” as Umgeni Water’s chief executive as part of the investigation in terms of proclamation R4 of 2019.
Kganyago said the SIU had interviewed Shinga telephonically about the activities of another of his companies, Majojobela Property Services Pty Ltd. “However, the information he provided to us was not relevant or required for our investigation.”
Neither Hlongwa nor Shinga had expressed any concerns about their safety, Kganyago said.
He said the SIU was not aware that Raminet Technologies was among the companies blacklisted over the EOH scandal.“We have no knowledge of this,” he said.
This week the South African Police Service (SAPS) did not respond to queries about Shinga’s killing, but Raminet Technologies’ lawyer said she had not heard of any progress in the investigation.
Meanwhile, several people close to Hlongwa told Mail & Guardian this week that he had disappeared shortly after Shinga was shot on January 26.
“Hlongwa disappeared when Shinga was shot and killed. He changed his phone numbers, so nobody has been able to get hold of him,” said a friend, who asked not to be identified. “Everybody says the man has gone underground.”
A former board member, who also asked not to be named, also said Hlongwa had gone to ground.
“This is all very strange. The guy just vanished. Nobody knows where he is. All his phones are off. The last anybody saw him or heard from him was in December,” the former board member said.
Numerous attempts by the M&G to get hold of Hlongwa since Shinga’s death have been unsuccessful.
According to police, the seriously injured Shinga was driven to the Sydenham police station by an unidentified man. He died at the police station.
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