Paul Kirk More details emerged this week of the involvement of KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board members in casino companies to which they have awarded licenses. The Mail & Guardian last week reported how gambling board member Londiwe Mthembu was a director of Akani Umsundizi, a company that has won a lucrative bid to build a casino in Pietermaritzburg.
The province’s gambling board rubbished the M&G article in a Sunday newspaper last week, claiming Mtembu had resigned from the company before the licence was awarded in July.
However, the M&G this week obtained an Akani letterhead listing Mthembu as a member of the company’s board. The letterhead is less than two months old. The M&G is also in possession of a sworn affidavit from Akani to the gambling board confirming Mthembu is a director of their concern. Mthembu is still a member of the board – an apparent contravention of the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Act. The M&G has also obtained banking records in which board member Solly Sibeko himself claims he is a director of a company associated with South African Breweries – a shareholder in another winning casino bid. The bank records are related to the purchase of a luxury German sedan. Last week the gambling board said: “Sibeko is not a director of the company.” The documents the M&G have obtained and the records held by the registrar of companies tell a different story. South African Breweries holds a major interest in Tsogo Sun, a bid company that won a license to operate a casino on the Durban beachfront. The M&G has also established that, contrary to the rules of the KwaZulu-Natal Gambling Board, an environmental impact assessment has not been fully completed on the Akani bid, with which Sibeko is associated. This week a bidder who lost out to Akani successfully obtained a court order forcing the provincial gambling board to explain why his consortium had lost.