The Department of Public Enterprise’s chief director, Andile Nkuhlu, was facing an investigation for allegedly receiving money from a company which won the bid for a R335-million state forestry deal, the Sunday Times reports.
The newspaper said Nkuhlu was paid R55 000 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. – Sapa