A Swazi court has found that a senior executive of The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) fraudulently manipulated a tender of Swaziland’s national power company.
In a civil case heard in the High Court of Swaziland in Mbabane earlier this year Chief Justice Richard Banda found that Themba Tsela, who was then employed by the Swaziland Electricity Board (SEB), acted fraudulently against the SEB by manipulating a bidding process to ensure that one of the bidders, Malesela Technical Services, was appointed ahead of other applicants.
Tsela is currently Nersa’s executive manager of hydrocarbons regulation.
The judge found that he had instructed tender evaluators to change scores and increase the points awarded to Malesela Technical Services for an SEB tender to reduce electrical supply losses.
Judge Banda also found that Tsela fired a colleague who resisted his instructions to alter the scores and then to changed the scores himself.
The SEB wanted to identify the cause of the supply losses and institute measures to reduce them by 90% or more. On the strength of the tender, Malesela signed an agreement with the SEB in 2003.
Applying for the cancellation of the agreement, the SEB said the tender process was flawed. It also argued that the agreement was invalid because it did not have the written approval of the minister of natural resources and energy, as required by the Public Enterprises (Control and Monitoring) Act.
The judge also found that Tsela had misrepresented the provisions of the agreement by leading the SEB to believe that it did not have to pay Malesela Technical Services directly. Instead, the amount due would come from money generated by implementing the agreement.
Judge Banda ruled in favour of the SEB, approving their application with costs.
The Mail & Guardian tried to contact Tsela for comment this week, but was told that he was out of the office.
According to Charles Hlebela, head of the communication department and stakeholder management at Nersa, the company was not aware of the pending case against Tsela when he was hired in January 2006.
‘Nersa is studying the judgement and will follow its internal processes to come to a conclusion about what action to take concerning Tsela.â€