Dragging her feet: A whistleblower says Totsie Memela-Khambula has not yet investigated a dodgy tender worth R45.6-million.
The chief executive of the beleaguered South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), Busisiwe “Totsie” Memela-Khambula, is embroiled in an alleged R45.6-million corruption cover-up for a cleaning tender in the Eastern Cape.
Memela-Khambula was informed in March that the three-year cleaning contract was awarded to Kwasa Food Supplies, whose director Peter Mama is the brother-in-law of a senior Sassa Eastern Cape official, Mziwonke Mekuto.
Mekuto’s sister, Mickey Mama, who is the head of the Eastern Cape’s department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism, is married to Peter Mama.
Memela-Khambula has been aware of this information since March, and has allegedly not instituted an investigation into nepotism claims, despite asserting that she would do so.
She has been Sassa’s chief executive since May 2019, when she was appointed by former social development minister Susan Shabangu shortly before President Cyril Ramaphosa removed her as minister.
Memela-Khambula’s promise to begin probing the tender was made in internal email correspondence, which the Mail & Guardian has seen.
Sassa, the entity responsible for the disbursement of more than R500‑billion in social grants, has been in the news recently for allowing 210 778 temporary disability grants to lapse after initially having extended them to the end of December 2020 because of the pandemic.
Mekuto, who is the provincial Sassa office’s acting general manager for corporate services, chaired the cleaning tender’s bid adjudication committee and allegedly removed suitable companies in favour of his brother-in-law’s.
The tender was to clean three of Sassa’s Eastern Cape regional offices; namely in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality, the Chris Hani district municipality and the OR Tambo district municipality.
So brazen were the brothers-in-law that Mama gave the 30% of government contracts that are set aside and have to go to local small and medium enterprises to Kwasa Foods’ long-standing employee, Asanda Ngquba.
“Mama said Asanda [Ngquba] would be the local enterprise to get the 30% set aside for the contract in order to pocket the full R45.6-million for himself,” said a senior Sassa source.
When the M&G contacted Ngquba, he said he had no idea that Mama had listed him as a local small business to receive 30% of the tender. He conceded that he knew Mama.
“My brother, I am very far from the [Kwasa Foods] office. I really don’t know anything [about the 30%]. I will ask Peter when I see him,” Ngquba said.
Documents seen by the M&G show that neither Mekuto nor Mama declared their family relationship prior, during or after the awarding of the bid.
Their failure to declare was against national treasury regulations, in terms of which a declaration form must be submitted where there are possible conflicts. The form, in part, states that, to prevent possible allegations of favouritism, state employees and bidders must declare their relations should family be involved in any way during the awarding of a tender.
In an email dated 4 March 2021, a whistleblower detailed the alleged corrupt manner in which the tender was doled out, including the familial ties between Mama and Mekuto: “Upon [the] evaluation of the bid, most companies that were a threat to Mr Mama’s company [were] eliminated, clearing a path for Mr Mama’s company to be recommended. It is in this light that I raise this unethical behaviour and gross manipulation of the tender process: for personal gain.”
The Sassa chief executive responded that very evening, saying: “Thank you for the heads up. We will indeed investigate the matter.”
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However, more than two months later, no investigation has been commissioned, with sources saying Sassa’s chief executive was “not interested in rooting out corruption”.
Sassa stopped paying temporary disability grants in December 2020 to 210 778 beneficiaries, who were given a 10-month extension in March 2020 when the Covid-19 lockdown began. Medical certificates are required for the 12-month-long temporary disability grants, but many beneficiaries struggled to obtain these under lockdown.
In January, Sassa said of its financial predicament in halting the grants: “To have continued payment of the grants until end March 2021 would have cost an additional R1.2 billion, [but such] funds are not available.”
The state agency mandated to care for South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens has an ignominious history of mismanagement.
Three years ago, Pearl Bhengu, who is currently the chief executive at Ithala Development Finance Corporation, was roped in by former minister Bathabile Dlamini to take over at Sassa after Dlamini fired then-head Thokozani Magwaza.
Bhengu’s independence was called into question after the M&G revealed that she was in business with Dlamini’s daughter, Skhumbuzo Mazibuko.
They subsequently both resigned from the companies.
Another former chief executive, Virginia Petersen, signed off on R2-million to be paid to provide security services to Dlamini’s children without going through proper procurement processes.
By the time of publication neither Mama, Mekuto or Sassa had responded to questions.
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