Paul Kirk
The National Directorate of Public Prosecutions is close to completing a probe into allegedly corrupt practices involving the deputy mayor of Durban, councillor Logie Naidoo.
This comes a week after the forensic investigative unit of the Durban municipality began a probe into Visvin Reddy the chair of the Durban unicity tender board and the right-hand man of Minority Front leader Amichand Rajbansi.
Naidoo, a friend of Reddy’s, is alleged to have received kickbacks and bribes over a long period from a well-known KwaZulu-Natal North Coast industrialist. The contracts involve engineering work and security contracts amounting to millions of rands.
News of the investigation first came to light this week when the leader of the opposition, Tony Leon, made mention of a top-level investigation into corruption in the unicity council during a rally at Clare Estate, north of Durban. Leon mentioned Naidoo by name at the rally.
Naidoo denied there is such a probe; however, the Mail & Guardian has established that he is a prime suspect in a number of corrupt deals and is under investigation.
The investigation was ordered by the Office of the Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, after numerous complaints were received about Naidoo. Most of the complaints came in the form of anonymous typed letters that go into detail about alleged corruption.
Last week a number of Democratic Alliance councillors received an anonymous letter detailing how the owner of a security company allegedly pays Naidoo and others kickbacks in exchange for being awarded council contracts. In the letter the security boss is accused of harassing the “treasury girls” by demanding early payment, explaining he needs the money to pay off Naidoo and other councillors.
Investigators from the Scorpions as well as council officials are probing the allegations in the letter.
The single typed page mentions how the security boss has obtained a number of contracts without proper tender procedures being followed and also mentions how the man boasted that Reddy and Naidoo were the main sources of his contracts.
Naidoo said: “This all came like a bolt out the blue. I know nothing about this investigation. I have not been charged and I am thinking of suing Leon.” He claimed that Leon’s “links to the apartheid military” were motivating what he labelled a smear campaign.
Reddy is also accusing the DA of a smear campaign. He is alleged to have telephoned a number of Durban hotels asking for free accommodation in return for booking council workshops at the hotels. One hotel owner complained to the Durban unicity’s corruption buster, acting municipal manager Eddy Morton.
Members of the Democratic Party and New National Party called last week for Reddy to be suspended immediately, but the executive committee of the unicity decided to allow the probe into Reddy to be completed before making any decision on his status in the council.
At the time of going to press Sipho Ngwema, representative of the national director of public prosecutions, was not available for comment. Senior Scorpions officials in KwaZulu-Natal confirmed the allegations against Naidoo “and several others” are the subject of an investigation.