ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa is expected to give evidence as a state witness in the R24 million Nelson Mandela Bay toilet corruption case when it resumes next month.
Lungisa will be among the witnesses testifying at the trial of Nelson Mandela Bay municipal manager Noxolo Nqwazi and 11 others who have been appearing on fraud charges in the Gqebera specialised commercial crimes court.
The case sat last week but was adjourned until 5 October, when Nqwazi’s legal team will bring an application for the recusal of magistrate Vusiwe Mnyani, who they claim has been lenient towards the state and biased against their client.
Lungisa, one of the leaders of the so-called radical economic transformation (RET) faction in the ANC, has already made a witness statement to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) team which has been investigating the matter.
The statement by Lungisa, a former ANC Nelson Mandela Bay councillor, is understood to have been made in his capacity as a former member of the mayoral committee for infrastructure, engineering, energy and electricity, a post he occupied at the time the crime was allegedly committed.
Nqwazi and her co-accused allegedly violated the Municipal Finance Management Act by awarding the tender for building toilets in an informal settlement without following procurement protocols in 2020.
They allegedly abused Covid-19 emergency procurement guidelines to award the tender for 2 000 chemical toilets and 2 000 standpipes to HT Pelatona Projects — which the municipality was not entitled to do. Only 200 of the toilets were built despite R24.6 million being paid to the service provider.
Some of the money was allegedly diverted to pay three former Democratic Alliance (DA) councillors — Trevor Louw, Victor Manyathi and Neville Higgins — R100 000 each.
The three had turned against the DA and assisted in ousting then mayor Athol Trollip in a no confidence vote in April 2018.
They are now accused in the case, along with former ANC regional secretary Loyiso Nqakula, the metro’s former acting human settlements head Mvuleni Mapu and business owners Xolani Masela and Morne van der Linde.
According to the indictment, the businesses channelled R400 000 to Nqakula, who in turn made the payments of R100 000 each to the former DA councillors, who were subsequently expelled.
The alleged fraud and corruption was uncovered by the Special Investigating Unit during an audit of tenders awarded during the Covid-19 lockdown period using emergency procurement procedures.
The first arrests, those of Mapu, Nqakula and the three former councillors, took place during 2021.
It is understood that the evidence of Lungisa, who sat on the local Covid-19 command centre, will focus on the bypassing of tender procedures on the part of Nqwazi and Mapu, who had moved control of the toilets project from the city’s infrastructure department.
It will also focus on the sidelining of the city’s supply chain management executives by the city manager, who is facing removal by the council after having her earlier suspension overturned by the court.