In the lead up to awarding the controversial R24.6m toilet tender at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, price negotiations between the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality and the contractor selected to build 2,000 toilets took place.
This process and certain discrepancies between his initial statement and the evidence before court were canvassed in the Gqeberha commercial crimes court on Monday with human settlements director Sandisile Mahashe when he was cross-examined by defence attorneys.
Mahashe was testifying in the matter against then-city manager Noxolo Nqwazi, suspended housing boss Mvuleni Mapu and several other individuals accused of fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Red flags were raised when the normal procurement processes were allegedly set aside during the awarding of the tender.
Nqwazi, Mapu, ANC regional secretary Luyolo Nqakula, Morne van der Linde and his company HT Pelatona Projects, businesspeople Xolani and Nwabisa Masela, and former DA councillors Mbulelo Manyathi, Trevor Louw and Neville Higgins, appeared in the Gqeberha commercial crimes court on Monday.
The defence advocate for Van der Linde and his company, Annelise Roestoff, continued her cross-examination of Mahashe who was back in the witness box after the case was postponed in September 2024.
Roestoff pointed out that there were some discrepancies between Mahashe’s evidence in court and the initial affidavit he gave to the police’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations — the Hawks — prior to the accused being arrested in September 2022.
These discrepancies pertained to timelines of when certain documents were submitted to him that ultimately enabled him to draft the contract for HT Pelatona’s appointment for the construction of 2,000 toilets.
Mahashe told the court that he did not draft the affidavit and was only asked to sign the document after the Hawks had drawn it up.
He admitted that he had read and signed the statement, and that a failure to correct some of the timeline errors were an oversight on his part.
During the testimony, he shed some light on the process that finally led to the appointment of HT Pelatona and the challenges they faced ahead of the contract’s final approval.
He said once his department received a letter from the treasury in about April 2020 that a budget had been approved, it was part of his duties to start the process of preparing contracts for the appointment of a service provider.
Mahashe said the letter gave approval for the construction of 2,000 toilets, but he could not remember what the allotted funding was.
He and his technical team started contacting suppliers to get an estimate of what the entire project would cost, but this proved to be a challenge as many of their regular suppliers were closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.
However, they managed to provide a figure of R10,500 per toilet.
Later, a provisional appointment letter was sent to HT Pelatona, and a negotiation process started before the company submitted a bill of quantities which detailed its expected costs for the project.
It submitted an amount of R12,300 per toilet — which put the total cost of the project at R24.6m excluding VAT.
Despite it being higher than their initial estimates, Mahashe said HT Pelatona’s numbers were fair as his department’s figures were only estimates based on limited information due to their struggle to get hold of suppliers.
Mahashe also said he was never part of the negotiations and only saw documents after the company had negotiated with his then superior, acting director Nokuthula Tetyana.
The state alleges that Nqwazi and Mapu bypassed procurement processes to award the tender to HT Pelatona during the pandemic.
On April 17 2020, Mapu allegedly drafted a document as motivation for Nqwazi to approve the appointment of HT Pelatona, but did not outline why the prescribed tender process could not be followed.
Days later, Nqwazi signed the document and R400,000 was paid into the bank account of Thuthiko Logistics.
Subsequently, R300,000 was paid into the account of Nwabisa Masela, who then paid it over to her husband Xolani’s account.
That money was then allegedly paid into the account of Nqakula, who subsequently paid R100,000 into the accounts of Manyathi, Louw and Higgins for what the state claims was gratification after they helped remove then-mayor Athol Trollip.
The trial continues.
The Herald
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.