Zulu
Paul Kirk
The KwaZulu-Natal government is launching a probe into the province’s MEC for Social Welfare and Population Development, Gideon Zulu, for alleged nepotism and misappropriation of state funds.
Premier Lionel Mtshali’s representative, Mahlathi Tembe, said the investigation team, to be announced through a provincial edition of the Government Gazette next week, would probe a series of corrupt deals reported this year by the Mail & Guardian.
In February, the M&G reported that Zulu’s daughter, Cynthia Kabanyane, was employed by Cornerstone, a company accused of selling dubious funeral policies to pensioners across the province with the co-operation of her father’s department (“Prince Gideon feathers his nest”, February 11 to 17).
Cornerstone entered into a contract with Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), the company that pays out pensions in KwaZulu-Natal, in terms of which it deducted the policy payments directly from state pensions before they were paid.
The week before exposing Zulu’s daughter, the M&G reported CPS had been paying sums of money into her bank accounts, and that these monies were afterwards transferred into Zulu’s personal account.
Gideon Zulu has vowed to sue the M&G for revealing his family’s banking details, but has declined to talk to the newspaper.
This week it emerged in the province’s legislature that CPS’s contract was R42- million more expensive than the bidder the tender evaluation committee wanted to award the contract to – Allpay, a division of Abasa bank.
The evaluation committee was overruled by the Department of Social Welfare, which insisted CPS be awarded the contract.
The investigation team is expected to report back to Mtshali’s office within three months, after which its findings will be tabled in the provincial legislature.
Meanwhile, Guy Rich, the representative for the Heath special investigating unit, said this week that the unit had submitted documentation to the Department of Justice requesting a proclamation to be able to investigate Zulu.