Saths Cooper, vice-chancellor of the University of Durban-Westville (UDW), and deputy vice-chancellor Lionel Nicholas, received a R174 000 interim statement of account last month from an unregistered security company. The precise services for which the company charged remain unclear.
The Mail & Guardian has a copy of the statement, issued on the letterhead of Samrak Security Services and dated August 31. The letterhead bears the slogan ”Total Security Solution”, followed by ”Consultants, Security Evaluation, Guards (Armed — Unarmed), Private Investigation, Body Guards, Social Events, Risk Management, CCTV, Alarms, Access Control, Electric Fencing.”
Samrak is not registered, as legislation requires, with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Sira).
The letterhead page says ”Our Ref” is ”Mr S Wiesner”. ”Your Ref” is ”Prof LJ Nicholas/Dr Saths Cooper”. It goes on to say: ”We confirm our appointment by yourselves on 4 June 2003 to conduct a complete security evaluation and risk analysis of the entire campus of the University of Durban-Westville.”
The statement specifies eight ”consultants” (presumably consultations) at R6 000 each in June, eight in July and 13 in August, totalling R174 000. No VAT is charged.
Authorised by Cooper’s and Nicholas’s signatures, payment of the R174 000 was made from a UDW account, well-placed university representatives told the M&G. They also say neither the appointment of Samrak nor payment to the firm was approved by normal UDW channels.
The university has its own security department, staffed by UDW em-ployees, senior university personnel said. In addition, UDW employed Securicor, a private firm, until this month, when the company was replaced by a Western Cape-based private security organisation.
The Sunday Times reported in August that the home telephone of a senior UDW academic, Professor Anand Singh, had been bugged. This produced a tape recording of the conversation between Singh and University of Natal vice-chancellor Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, in which Cooper was discussed.
The same report cited Cooper as saying he was shocked at the bugging and would order an investigation to ensure no one at UDW was involved. Among many questions the M&G sent this week to attorneys acting for Cooper and Nicholas was: when did the investigation begin, who is conducting it, and what progress has been made?
Numerous attempts to obtain answers from the attorneys failed.
The M&G has been unable to track down the ”Mr S Wiesner” whose name appears on the Samrak statement of account. And calling the landline number given on the Samtrak letterhead elicited the Telkom message, ”The number you have dialled does not exist”.
But company registration records show that Sabera Rakmatullah, a 23-year-old woman, is the director of Samrak. A cellphone number on the letterhead was answered this week by Nazeer Rakmatullah, who said Sabera Rakmatullah is his daughter and she is Samrak’s director, ”but she’s not active”. Asked why she, and not he, appeared on company registration records, he said: ”I have my reasons.”
He confirmed the issue of the statement to Cooper and Nicholas, but declined to give details of the service Samrak provided to UDW in June, July and August: ”It’s a private matter.” He added: ”If you’re not happy with the service you’re getting, you come to me and get results. Cooper got positive results [from Samrak].”
Samrak is not registered with Sira, Nazeer Rakmatullah confirmed. ”But Samrak’s holding company, Secu-Afrika, is.” He acknowledged that this did not meet the legal requirement that Samrak itself be registered. ”Sometimes things happen. We might not always be legal and above board, you take your chances.”
He described Wiesner as a ”private consultant … He comes as himself, we kind of work together.”
He also confirmed that he is a member of the South African Police Service. ”I won’t deny it. I’m moonlighting on the side. After 24 years service I want to get out. I’ve been on sick leave, with stress, for some time.”
Last month the minister of education announced that Transnet chairperson Bongani Khumalo would investigate ”apparent governance and management problems at UDW”.
Additional reporting by Stefaans Brümmer