AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER
SOUTH Africa’s governing party, the ANC, faces damning allegations that it is funded through kickbacks from irregular state tenders.
Evidence led at the judicial commission into state capture, chaired by the country’s Deputy President Raymond Zondo, contains traces of up to R16-million in “donations” to the ANC’s Johannesburg region from EOH, a company that got tenders, worth hundreds of millions, from the ANC-run Johannesburg City Council.
Steven Powell, managing director of ENSAfrica, which conducted investigations of EOH transactions, presented damaging documented evidence which traced transactions of millions that were paid to the ANC and a company owned by the current mayor Geoff Makhubo.
Powell tabled evidence which showed that Makhubo, then the treasurer in the ANC’s Joburg region and MMC for Finance in the Joburg City Council, solicited a donation of R50-million from EOH to fund the ANC campaign for the 2016 local government elections.
According to Powell’s testimony, Makhubo, his company Molelwane Consulting and EOH’s then business development executive Patrick Makhubedu, emerge as central players in the kickback scandal.
EOH had two contracts with the City of Johannesburg, totalling R470-million, to implement the SAP software.
An EOH subsidiary TSS Managed Services was awarded a R109-million contract for a network and security infrastructure upgrade. Email evidence was presented at the Zondo Commission which revealed Makhubo asking for donations from EOH and TSS. Investigators identified over R2-million that TSS made to the ANC.
Powell also revealed an EOH executive – Jehan Mackay – had made repeated payments to South Africa’s Deputy Minister of State Security, Zizi Kodwa, who was then the national spokesperson of the ANC.
Payments, flagged as suspicious by the investigators, were also made to Siyabulelwa Sintwa, then personal assistant to then president Jacob Zuma and Reggie Nkabinde, then treasurer-general of the ANC Youth League.
Powell said details of the payments to Kodwa, Sintwa and Nkabinde have been referred to the Hawks, the elite corruption-busting detective unit of the South African Police.
