The provincial education department has delayed handing over tender documents to the SIU since February Photo: Supplied
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been looking into alleged corruption in the R2.4 billion KwaZulu-Natal school nutrition programme debacle since February.
Millions of learners have struggled without the breakfast and lunch served as part of the national school nutrition programme since the Easter break because the company granted the tender either failed to deliver food or provided rotten food.
The tender, awarded to Pacina Retail (Pty) Ltd, owned by self-styled philanthropist AmaZulu FC director Manzini Zungu, first drew the SIU’s attention earlier this year after a whistleblower tipped the unit off about the contract.
But the provincial education department’s director general, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, has failed to provide the SIU with the tender documentation it requested two months ago.
Pacina’s failure to supply the nearly 5 400 schools with food has set off alarm bells, with both Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, who has appointed her adviser, Linda Zama, to investigate the tender, as well as with Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Motshekga’s national department funds the school nutrition programme and she has written to KwaZulu-Natal MEC for education, Mbali Fraser, demanding all documentation for the award to a single service provider, a major deviation from the national system for supplying school nutrition projects at predominantly no fee schools around the country.
In a letter to Ngcobo on 17 February, SIU KwaZulu-Natal head Ashish Gosai said the investigating unit had received allegations from a whistleblower that Pacina “did not meet the tender specifications, yet was awarded the tender”.
Gosai said the SIU was mandated to only investigate matters regarding state institutions and public money and required the department’s cooperation in assessing whether it could proceed.
“In assessing the allegations and whether [the] same can be pursued by the SIU, the SIU requires a measure of corroboration of the allegations together with documents where possible to support the motivation for a proclamation.”.
Gosai said the allegations regarding the irregular tender award — for three years with an option to extend by another two — required clarity from the SIU’s case assessment committee.
Gosai asked Ngcobo to provide the supply chain documentation regarding the tender, the bid specifications, the bid evaluation and adjudication process, a copy of the contract, a cost breakdown and proof that the tender specifications were met by Pacina.
Ngcobo was asked to do so by 27 February, but had not done so by the time of writing.
Pressure has been ramping up on Fraser — and Zungu — over the failure of the company to supply the schools, which were previously serviced by local level companies that provided fresh food and groceries to the school kitchens.
By last week the department had taken over supply to schools in some parts of the province because of Pacina’s logistical shortcomings.
Pacina owns a number of Spars and Tops bottle stores in the province. Its chief executive, Sean Brimacombe, has historical links with the Spar group, and insiders say he and Zungu had planned to leverage this in using the retailer’s stores, warehouses and logistics capacity to meet the conditions of the tender.
Zungu, who describes AmaZulu owner Sandile Zungu as his “brother”, undertook to respond to detailed questions from the Mail & Guardian about his company’s logistical capacity and what went wrong. Zungu had failed to do so at the time of writing.
Democratic Alliance MP Imraan Keeka said he welcomed the decision by the premier, Motshekga and the SIU to step in, but expressed concerns that the investigation would be delayed.
Keeka said he had written to Dube-Ncube asking her to set clear timelines for the investigation and to ensure that its findings are made public as quickly as possible.
“Despite the premier’s probe, the DA is not convinced that the NSNP [national school nutrition programme] crisis will end soon. We believe that it will only deepen over time and that probes by the premier and the national minister are smokescreens and delaying tactics that will cause further misery,” he said.
Keeka said it was “fortunate” that the SIU investigation would mitigate delays in investigations by the premier’s office, some of which had taken up to five years to complete.
“This cannot happen when children are starving,” he said, adding that the department had given little or no consideration to the immediate breach of contract by Pacina.
“Many children did not receive their only meal of the day. Those that did were given rotten and expired food, unfit for a piggery, while schools were forced to close early,” he said.
“The DA expects the premier to make public the form of her investigation and provide a deadline. With the SIU probe, there is still hope, and the DA believes that this will yield a more timeous and credible outcome than the premier’s investigation.”
In a letter to Keeka, the SIU confirmed that it had requested documentation about the tender from the department, but that it had not been forthcoming.
Education department spokesperson Sqinikezo Shezi had not responded to questions from the M&G at the time of writing.
Inkatha Freedom Party president Velenkosini Hlabisa on Monday called on the department to scrap the tender and reappoint the local level service providers who had been servicing schools all along.
Hlabisa called for a criminal investigation into the tender.