Thuli Nhlapo Zanele Mbeki, wife of President Thabo Mbeki, has emerged as a key player in a saga involving the erection of temporary housing that flouted government policy and tender procedures. The lawfulness of the housing settlement, in Leeuwkop, north of Johannesburg, was addressed in the Pretoria High Court this week. The court observed that the government had not followed any of its own policies in erecting 200 temporary shelters earmarked for Alexandra township flood victims near Leeuwkop prison. Officials involved in the creation of the settlement have confirmed that Zanele Mbeki recommended the construction company that got the R4,2-million job. There is no evidence that Mbeki benefited financially from the deal. Those who did benefit, however, played key roles in the Motheo construction scandal that rocked Mpumalanga in 1997. The sole director of the construction company that got the job, Ahanang Hardware and Construction, is Granny Seape, one of the leading figures in the Motheo controversy. In that saga, the Motheo contract was declared null and void after investigations by the auditor general and a commission of inquiry found it had been obtained in breach of government policy and tender procedures. There are intriguing parallels between the Leeuwkop and Motheo sagas – both in terms of the characters involved and the breach of due process. Seape is the sister of Motheo director Thandi Ndlovu, a close friend of Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele. Seape also formerly headed banking group Nedcor’s low-cost housing division, which was instrumental in masterminding the Motheo deal.
During a commission of inquiry into the award of a R198-million contract to Motheo Housing, one of the contractors in the deal said the only name mentioned other than Ndlovu’s during shareholding discussions was that of “a woman by the name of Zanele”, who had been proposed as a director “because of her position”. Seape denied to the commission at the time ever having mentioned the name Zanele. Seape also dismissed allegations that the woman was in fact Zanele Mbeki. Seape is also a director of Ahanang Agency cc, of which Sathiselan Moodley, the former Mpumalanga housing board chief sacked in the wake of the Motheo scandal, is a former director. Ahanang Agency cc is an affiliate of Ahanang Hardware and Construction. The Leeuwkop saga began early this year when floods washed away the shacks of the residents on the banks of the Jukskei river in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. To deal with measures of emergency flood relief, the president established the National Command Centre (NCC) in February, according it a budget of R557-million. The NCC, after meetings with the Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa and the housing MEC in April, decided to rehouse Alexandra flood victims on state-owned land near Leeuwkop prison, without consulting local residents.
The Kyalami Ridge Environmental Association (Krea), which represented residents near the proposed housing site, asked the Department of Public Works to stop the development. When the resident association’s pleas fell on deaf ears, it sought a temporary interdict in the Pretoria High Court, which the government opposed.
The state has admitted flouting tender procedures on the grounds that it was an emergency. Bongani More, representative of the NCC, project manager and chief director of public works said two weeks ago the government was not obliged to follow a tender process in an emergency situation. Despite the emergency, construction only began in June, four months after floods swept away the shelters of 175 families on Alexandra’s
East Bank. The 120 houses built so far at Leeuwkop are standing empty pending the court’s decision.
When interviewed a fortnight ago, More said: “Mrs Mbeki and her NGO had initially conceptualised the idea. Mrs Mbeki recommended Ahanang Hardware and Construction.” More added that earlier this year an NGO to which Mbeki is affiliated sent some Ahanang staff members to Japan for skills training on wooden houses that the Japanese had built for earthquake victims. However, as there is no electricity in the Leeuwkop settlement, the wooden houses are considered a fire hazard. Ahanang Hardware and Construction “was the best candidate in Mrs Mbeki’s view”, More said.
In the interdict case this week Judge Henry Daniels said “it was a fact that government did not comply with any of the statutory laws”. Judgement was reserved until next week.
Asked for comment, Seape said: “I do not discuss my private and business matters in the media. I also reserve my rights to proceed in whichever way I may deem fit. “Since you indicate that your source is the National Command Centre I suggest you use the same sources for the rest of the queries you have.” Collin Matjila, the CEO of the NCC, last week said all information More gave the Mail & Guardian about the deal had been untrue. Matjila threatened to sue the M&G should the article be printed without his being afforded a chance to answer for Mbeki and Seape. When approached for comment this week, Matjila was abroad on a business trip.
More confirmed the threat this week: “It is not an empty threat. Should you go ahead and print those facts, rest assured that you will be faced with a R2-million lawsuit which we will put into our construction work.”
Zanele Mbeki did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
@SA traders plunder Madagascar The tiny island’s unique ecology is being destroyed by unscrupulous South African animal traders Fiona Macleod Gauteng pet shops and collectors are pillaging Madagascar’s natural resources by buying up weird and wonderful creatures advertised for sale on the Internet. One local trader advertising on a website labelled “your one-stop South African pet- related Internet shop” is offering a wide range of Malagasy animals, some of them so rare that they are practically unknown even to scientists. They include birds, reptiles and small mammals like tenrecs, spiky little creatures that look like hedgehogs. The site, posted by Cairncross Ecological Supplies in Mpumalanga, promises to “try to find anything our customers need. We supply direct to the public, but also wholesale to the trade.” Malagasy authorities say there has been a noticeable increase in wildlife trade to South Africa in recent years and there are fears it is helping to destroy the tiny island’s unique ecology. “Most of the animals are caught in the wild,” says Ranarivelo Bruno, the Johannesburg-based consul general of Madagascar.
“You can’t believe how many lemurs are going out of the country, but it is difficult for us to do something about it because the airport authorities on both sides are weak.” Cary Cairncross, owner of Cairncross Ecological Supplies, says Gauteng is the heart of his local business, but the greatest demand for Malagasy creatures comes from the United States. He estimates Americans buy between 50E000 and 100E000 Malagasy animals a year. Between last November and April, Cairncross imported and re-exported at least 300 rare Malagasy tortoises, mostly to the US. Members of the Wildlife Action Group, a Gauteng-based wildlife trade watchdog, say on a recent visit to his premises in Grootvlei they found a number of fossas, small civet-like mammals that are endemic to Madagascar but are so rare that even scientists know little about them. Cairncross also deals in a wide variety of snakes from West Africa, tiny foxes from North Africa and dragons, or lizards, from China and Australia. But his lucrative business ran into a stumbling block last month after the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation, Environment and Land Affairs refused him permission to import 96 royal pythons from Ghana for a pet shop on the West Rand. The Gauteng department, which is responsible for issuing import permits for Mpumalanga, insisted Cairncross needed to provide an environmental impact study before importing the rare pythons. “An impact study ensures that the natural wild populations in the country of origin are not decimated,” says Trish Hanekom, head of the department. “It is also intended to provide certainty that these snakes will not become a problem if they escape into the wild, since they do not occur naturally in South Africa.” Cairncross launched an unsuccessful application in the Pretoria High Court to force the department to issue the permits, on the basis that he was suffering “financial loss and market share”. Hanekom says: “The message to traders is clear: the new regulations on trade in reptiles make an impact study a prerequisite. If they trade illegally, they will be bitten.” Rick Alan, manager of the wildlife unit at the National Council of SPCAs, says the problem with the import of exotic pets into the country is not so much the fear that, like the Ninja turtles, they will resurface out of the sewer system in the form of mutant monsters. “It’s more likely they will fall in the toilet and drown,” he says. “Take sugar gliders, the small flying squirrels from Australasia that have become the new rage in the pet trade: the mortality rate among those imported into the country is as high as 85%, mainly because people don’t know how to look after them.
“Newspapers and a whole range of plants are toxic to them. So as soon as you pad their cages with newspaper, you’re condemning them to death.”
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