Ann Eveleth
STATE-OWNED port operator Portnet has donated taxpayers’ money to Durban’s top cultural centre in a mysterious deal arranged by a former member of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Bartel Arts Trust (BAT) says it still has to establish where it is supposed to invest the R50 000 it received in February from Portnet’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) fund. The BAT centre merely leases space to privately run business.
But Portnet’s Durban port RDP co-ordinator Ali Phosa, brother of Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa, says the donation is a pre- payment for services, such as functions, for the port’s workforce.
Phosa’s partner in arranging the donation is ex-MK soldier Sipho “Mandla” Sithole.
Sithole is not a Portnet employee and his relationship to the organisation is unclear. Portnet employees say Sithole is working with the port’s head of security, Andre Welgemoed, which Welgemoed confirms. Phosa says he knows nothing about Sithole’s work for Welgemoed, and that he is merely helping with the BAT project. Speaking from Welgemoed’s office, Sithole said he had “nothing to say to journalists” and referred all queries to BAT.
The curious saga follows in the wake of an internal investigation into Phosa’s alleged mismanagement of R500 000 in RDP funds.
BAT centre manager Phillipa Huntly says she has asked Sithole and Phosa to explain what the money was for. “I don’t think they understood that they can’t invest in the centre, because we are a trust.”
Phosa says several options are still being considered for the money, although it had already been paid.
Huntly says there have been talks with port manager Bax Nomvete and the centre’s trustees over a potential donation, but says a cultural centre is an “odd” place to spend RDP money. Nomvete has recently been appointed as a centre trustee.
Nomvete says he has not yet “legally” become a trustee, though he has been offered the post. He defends the investment, saying “The BAT Centre does some RDP programmes”. However, he adds that he knows nothing about Sithole’s involvement.