The ‘clean-up†of Gauteng stepped up a gear this week with the suspension of Sibusiso Buthelezi, the powerful head of the provincial transport and public works department and a key ally of former premier Paul Mashatile.
Buthelezi immediately hit back, accusing his former political head, Ignatius Jacobs, of plotting to oust him and accusing his investigators of being motivated by issues ‘other than justice and impartialityâ€.
Buthelezi’s suspension comes after Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and the province’s director general, Mallele Petje, were presented with a damning forensic report into allegations levelled by Buthelezi and Jacobs against each other at the beginning of June.
Buthelezi was finally suspended by Bheki Nkosi, the Gauteng minister for roads and transport, supported by Mokonyane, on Tuesday.
The move is seen by insiders as a further step by the ANC to rid Gauteng of the so-called Alex Mafia — a group of senior government officials and businessmen close to Mashatile that benefited substantially from the previous regime under premier Mbhazima Shilowa.
Mashatile, the provincial ANC chairperson, was finance minister under Shilowa before being appointed premier in October 2008 after Shilowa quit to form the Congress of the People.
In a surprising move he was overlooked by President Jacob Zuma as first choice for premier of the newly elected provincial executive and instead appointed deputy minister of arts and culture. The decision was widely interpreted as a demotion for Mashatile and an effort by Luthuli House to loosen the Alex Mafia’s grip on the provincial fiscus.
Buthelezi’s suspension is largely motivated by the outcome of an investigation into his department’s affairs by lawyers Peter Harris and Michelle Moonsammy of the Resolve Group. The hard-hitting Harris report fingers Buthelezi in numerous instances of alleged wrongdoing and recommends that disciplinary action be instituted against him.
It clears Jacobs — now head of the provincial planning commission in Mokonyane’s office — but recommends that follow-up investigations be conducted into allegations of wrongÂdoing made against him by Buthelezi.
The investigation was triggered by an email Buthelezi sent to Jacobs on September 18 last year, copied to other officials, in which he levels certain allegations of misconduct against his former political head.
On October 6 2008 Harris was instructed by the province’s former director general, Mogopodi Mokoena, to investigate the allegations, as well as counter-allegations, made against Buthelezi by Jacobs.
The report paints a frightening picture of a government department hamstrung by top-level acrimony over the awarding of multimillion-rand tenders and being managed on a day-to-day basis by private consultants.
Buthelezi has taken legal advice on the matter and is already challenging Nkosi’s powers to suspend him.
Heads of department are appointed by the premier and, according to him, his letter of suspension should have come from Mokonyane herself.
These are the main findings against Buthelezi and his response thereto:
Jabulani Hospital
According to the Harris report, Buthelezi failed to meet the treasury’s procedural requirements by failing to submit a record of decision to the provincial treasury as well as the auditor-general explaining his decision to overturn the decision of the department’s acquisition council.
Buthelezi ‘unilaterally†appointed Ilima and Tau Pride as service providers to the project without embarking on a competitive tender process.
Buthelezi is also blamed for failing to request an updated tax clearance certificate from Ilima Projects before appointing them to the project.
Buthelezi denies this. ‘Problems surfaced early in the life of this project with consortium members failing to agree on roles and work-share,†he told the Mail & Guardian. ‘Various attempts were made to get the consortium functional.
Such interventions included the replacement of an architectural firm — A new contract was entered into with the remaining consortium member [Ilima].
Ilima was to be supported by a departmental entity, Impophoma Infrastructure Solutions and Tau Pride Project Management Resource Group.â€
According to him the Ilima tax matter was referred to commercial mediation after it was discovered.
‘The interests of the state have been fully protected throughout this process by retaining the performance guarantees [insurance] originally submitted by the original consortium,†Buthelezi said, adding that everything was on track to finish the main hospital by the end of August 2010.
Task Team of Four
The Harris report finds that Buthelezi contravened the Public Finance Management Act by ‘irregularly†appointing a task team of four consultants (named ‘TT4â€) in his department without following a competitive bidding process.
‘[I]n doing so he failed to maintain an appropriate procurement and provisioning system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective —â€
According to the Harris report, all monies paid to the TT4 project would amount to irregular expenditure and financial misconduct.
According to Buthelezi, Thandi Senoamali, one of the original TT4 members, was appointed by Jacobs in 2005 to help set up and participate in the committee of inquiry into private financing of public infrastructure.
‘I extended Ms Senoamali’s appointment in 2005 to assist with the management of the audit processes.
‘I had to do this because the chief financial officer [CFO] of the department, Mr Dingaan Sedumo, had gone away to his church conference at the height of the audit process. There was no adequate capacity in the department to handle the volumes and the complexity of the audit process.â€
Senoamali and MNS Attorneys also assisted Buthelezi in preparing for his department’s hearings at the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) ‘since the CFO has never made himself available since 2005 to participate in the Scopa processesâ€.
According to Buthelezi, TT4 was appointed following the ‘monumental failure†of Jacobs’s appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers to facilitate a turn-around strategy in the department.
MNS Attorneys
The Harris report criticises Buthelezi for his appointment of MNS Attorneys to provide technical and project management support to the Gautrain project. Buthelezi extended the scope of the work MNS was already contracted to do for the department.
Harris and Moonsammy found he should rather have appointed a law firm to work on Gautrain through a competitive bidding process.
‘In so doing, he failed to maintain an appropriate procurement and provisioning system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective.â€
All monies paid to MNS and its subcontractors in respect of the Gautrain project would amount to irregular expenditure, the report states.
Buthelezi denied extending the law firm’s scope of work, saying this was done by his department’s acquisition council (DAC). ‘I do not serve in the DAC structures.â€
Allegations by Buthelezi that Jacobs favoured a Chinese company to take over the Kempton Park hospital project, which had already been awarded to a local consortium, are referred by the Harris report for further investigation.
Buthelezi has requested Mokonyane to refer the Harris report to the Public Service Commission for further investigation.
‘I believe Mr Harris’s report will not stand the scrutiny of an independent inquiry.â€