Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe should suspend a forestry deal pending the outcome of an investigation into maladministration, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
DA representative Rudi Heine said the transfer of 130 000 hectares of the Komatiland plantation to Zama Resources Corporation should be put on hold until the allegations against chief director Andile Nkuhlu had been probed.
He was reacting to news reports that Nkuhlu allegedly received money from a company that won the bid for a R335-million state forestry deal.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Nkuhlu was allegedly paid R550 00 by Zama Resources Corporation, after it was announced as one of two preferred bidders in the deal.
The report said the payments were made through a firm of auditors, on written instruction from Zama, for ”services rendered to Zama” and to ”reimburse … staff members of Zama”.
Three months later, in March this year, Zama won the deal.
The company will now take over vast tracts of land that were owned by the parastatal South African Forestry Company Limited.
The newspaper reported that, as chairman of the interdepartmental bid evaluation committee, Nkuhlu was one of the three-man panel which recommended Zama as the winner.
He faces an investigation in terms of the Public Service Code of Conduct, which orders that senior civil servants have to report any financial interest or remuneration they receive outside their jobs.
The newspaper said that as a chief director, Nkuhlu would have had to get permission from his director-general.
But, according to the director-general of Public Enterprises, Dr Sivi Gounden, this was not done.
The newspaper reported Gounden said Nkuhlu faced an immediate investigation.
Heine said the contract, which was due to be signed within the next few weeks, should be kept on ice until it was established for certain whether or not Nkuhlu received R550 00 from Zama.
”Should he be found guilty of accepting money from Zama, he should be dismissed, and he should be charged criminally with corruption,” he said.
In addition, he said, the deal should be cancelled and the concession put out to tender once again.
”The government must send a strong message out to those that wish to do business with South Africa – you do not win contracts through graft.”
New National Party representative Willem Odendaal demanded that the R335-million transaction be declared void.
”Nkuhlu and the chairman of the interdepartmental tender committee, which appointed Zama should be suspended immediately pending an urgent departmental investigation.”
Odendaal urged Public Protector Selby Baqwa to investigate bribery and corruption in black empowerment transactions involving the Department of Public Enterprises from 1999 until now.
”The proposed investigation by the Public Protector will restore confidence in the credibility and legitimacy of black economic empowerment,” he said. – Sapa