No easy road: Funds in Ngqushwa are said to have been diverted to the ANC by enemies of premier Oscar Mabuyane (right), an ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa. (Lulama Zenzile/Media 24)
A sum of R10.1-million paid for work allegedly not done, and a broke district municipality that can’t pay salaries, have exposed an alleged plot to oust Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane.
According to internal documents that the Mail & Guardian has seen, the Ngqushwa local municipality paid out more than R9.5-million in December last year to three companies — Yebo Sales, Kula Afrika Projects and Simstone — for the refurbishment and surfacing of the central business district streets of its main town, Peddie.
Five highly-placed sources said Teris Ntuthu, the ANC’s Amathole district’s regional secretary, headed an alleged scheme to milk Ngqushwa’s funds for his party’s gain.
A profanity-laced message, allegedly sent by Ntuthu, also mentions a “bigger picture” to “raise funds” for the region to supposedly remove Mabuyane.
Ntuthu has denied all allegations and sending the message.
‘Not a single cent came into my account’
But insiders say that Ntuthu, who is involved in the deployment of ANC members to municipal posts, allegedly ensured that a percentage of monies received from public contracts made its way into the party’s coffers.
One of the companies allegedly paid for the refurbishments denied ever receiving the money. A livid Mkhuseli Tofa, the managing director at Mthatha-based Kula Afrika Projects, has slammed Ngqushwa and challenged it to provide proof of the R2.5-million it recorded it had paid him in its official documents.
Tofa said he only found out about the alleged payment when contacted by the M&G.
“I have not received a single cent from that municipality. If you were based near Mthatha, I would open my laptop and show you transactions on the date my company supposedly got paid [17 December 2020].”
He provided the M&G with a cancellation letter between his company and Ngqushwa, which wanted to use Kula Afrika’s vehicles to transport building material.
“Due to budget constraints, the municipality will not be able to honour the aforementioned agreement,” reads the letter dated 20 November 2020.
It was signed by Ngqushwa’s municipal manager, Zimkhitha Siwundla.
Repeated calls and text messages for comment to Sibongiseni Nobana, listed as the Yebo Sales’s sole director, went unanswered. The company allegedly received R997 764.42 from the municipality.
Ernst Britz, chief executive of Simstone’s Gauteng branch, said its Eastern Cape office were not contractors but suppliers of material for the Peddie project.
Britz said that according to an Eastern Cape colleague, Ngqushwa had paid Simstone almost R6-million to manufacture kerbs and paving that the municipality had to collect.
Britz said his colleague “spoke to the engineer about three weeks ago, and [the engineer] indicated that they are not yet ready to come and collect as they are busy with site preparation”.
The fundraising ‘for ANC conferences’
Amathole district municipality, which encompasses the Ngqushwa municipality and five others, made news in January when it announced it could not pay employees’ salaries from February to June because of financial distress.
The planned non-payment has since been withdrawn after the intervention of the provincial government.
Ntuthu, in a short response to the M&G, dismissed corruption allegations against him.
“They [sources] must go and report the case with the South African Police Service. It won’t help to only report it to the newspapers unless the intentions are not to fight corruption but to taint people’s names,” Ntuthu said.
However, insiders’ claims that Ntuthu was allegedly using public money to fund ANC activities are seemingly supported by a message Ntuthu allegedly sent to Thandekile Mnyimba, Amathole district municipality’s municipal manager.
Ntuthu, who was responding to Mnyimba’s suggestion that Mnyimba was “thinking of bowing out gracefully” and resigning before April, berated Mnyimba in a message.
Ntuthu, in the message the M&G has seen, told Mnyimba not to quit as there was apparently “a bigger picture… to remove Mabuyane and replace him with our force”.
“Now you want to NYIT [quit]. What about the project, your fundraiser for ANC conferences?” the messages read.
Both individuals have said the messages had been fabricated.
Two weeks ago, Mabuyane told the M&G that he believed he was being targeted for removal for “speaking out against powerful ANC figures”.
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But Ntuthu again denied any wrongdoing, saying the messages were “fabricated” and that he would not be entertaining “fake messages”.
Ntuthu sent the M&G a statement from Amathole mayor Khanyile Maneli, who also called the messages “fictitious” and aimed at “creating a rift between the municipality and the provincial [government]”.
“We want to assure the residents of Amathole that we are committed to delivering uninterrupted services…and we will defend this noble intention against any form of destruction,” Maneli asserted.
Mnyimba sent the same statement.
Family and political connections unravelled
Meanwhile, more dubious payments have been flagged by insiders, including how the municipality paid R594 862 to Andile SG to refurbish Qawukeni Street in Ngqushwa.
Sonwabo Boqwana, the owner of Andile SG, confirmed to the M&G that he had received payment despite a court interdict issued a week before he received the money pending the outcome of a legal review for alleged tender irregularities.
Boqwana said the order was against Ngqushwa and not his company, and he believed he was not prevented from receiving payment.
Boqwana is accused of benefiting from nepotism as Ngqushwa’s late mayor, Nombuyiselo Magingxa, who died in January, was the maternal aunt of Boqwana’s wife, Anelisa Boqwana.
Insiders also claimed that Sonwabo received municipal contracts due to his friendship with Ntuthu. Boqwana confirmed being close to Ntuthu but said this had nothing to do with him getting contracts.
“We both happen to be members of the ANC, so we interact from time to time due to the social and political interests we share. He has neither intervened nor interfered with any of my business dealings, and I have not benefited in any way as a result of my knowing him at a personal or political level,” Boqwana said.
He stressed that, despite the M&G pointing out that no work had been done when he was paid, he had begun construction. He supplied pictures to the M&G of work supposedly being done on a gravel road as proof. His wife, Anelisa, is also employed in the municipality’s finance department and is alleged to have facilitated her husband’s payment.
Anelisa confirmed that Ngqushwa’s late mayor was her aunt but said she had nothing to do with her husband getting contracts while also denying that she facilitated payment for him.
The real situation residents have to endure
While the bogus payments were made, humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers drilled four boreholes to provide clean water to many of the municipality’s 138 villages, which had to rely on filthy river water or buying from tanks to survive.
According to GroundUp, one village in the area has had no water even though taps erected nine years ago.
When the M&G visited Ngqushwa sites where road upgrades were slated to resemble filthy dust bowls. Peddie’s main town streets, which had a more than R20-million budget for improvements, were laden with gaping holes, congested sidewalks, no visible traffic markings, or stop signs. However, half the budget has already been paid.
The area where official municipal documents said the site office was meant to be is a barren, open area with goats utilising the expansive field for grazing.
The M&G sent detailed questions to Ngqushwa’s acting mayor, Fumanekile Phumaphi, and Siwundla, the municipal manager.
Responding on their behalf, Ngqushwa spokesperson Ncumisa Cakwe said the more than R10 million expenditure was for the procurement of building material, which had been delivered, and not for work done.
“Currently, only drainage pipes have been delivered on site. The contractor is back on site to commence with the construction work,” Cakwe said. She did not reveal which contractor.
The M&G did not see any material on site during our visit.
On payments made despite a court order preventing this, Cakwe said the interdict was issued after work had commenced and invoices were submitted. No work had seemingly been done when the M&G visited the sites.
Cakwe, however, said the municipality was awaiting the court outcome into alleged tender irregularities.
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