/ 13 November 1998

TRC head vying for state diamond contact

MUNGO SOGGOT, Johannesburg | Friday 3.30pm.

A CONSORTIUM headed up by head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s reparations committee Hlengiwe Mkhize is tipped to win a major government diamond valuation contract. The Diamond Board has yet to announce the winner, but rival bidders, who have expressed misgivings about the tender process, claim Mkhize’s consortium was selected some time ago.

Mkhize’s Belgian team-mate, Claude Nobels, runs a company called Cominco. The company Mkhize chairs, DVIC, has a 30% stake in the Cominco bid and appears to have been set up expressly for the deal — its address is that of the Sandton law firm which set it up in August. She would not discuss with the Mail& Guardian her partners in the local arm, saying the consortium consist of only her and Nobels.

Mkhize also declined to discuss how she teamed up with Nobels, but industry speculation is that the marriage was brokered by a South African businessman with an intimate knowledge of the Diamond Board. Diamond Board chair Gibson Thula, an influential Johannesburg businessman with close links to the African National Congress, referred all queries to the chief executive of the Diamond Board, Victor Sibiya.

Sibiya said the selection panel’s decision merely has to be endorsed by Minerals and Energy Minister Penuell Maduna, and that he expected to make an announcement in a few days.

One of the losers, a London-based consortium comprising former employees of diamond giant De Beers, says it was given only 24-hours notice for its interview before the tender selection panel in Johannesburg. Another top contender was London-based Mariott, which is the official valuer in Namibia and Angola.

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