The auditor-general of SA has cleared up the confusion around Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Mkhuseli Jack’s business dealings with the city.
Umzamo Wethu and Yonke Installations were flagged by the auditor-general (AG) in a management report as businesses that were linked to Jack and had done business with the metro.
According to the report, Umzamo Wethu regularly carried out cleaning services for the metro in 2022 and received a series of payments totalling R138,306,50.
Yonke Installations was paid R111,766,28 for two jobs in November and December 2021.
The payments led to the Bay’s EFF caucus calling for Jack to step down as deputy mayor for failing to declare his business interests.
The matter was then referred to the ethics committee for an investigation.
However, Jack’s attorneys wrote to the office of the AG on April 3, denying that he owned Umzamo Wethu and requested that the AG make the necessary corrections in its report to the city.
The business unit leader in the AG’s office, Shereen Noble, said they had subsequently found it was not Jack’s company.
“After receiving your letter, we checked the information currently on the companies and intellectual property commission (CIPC) database and observed that while Mr Mkhuseli Jack does own a company called Umzamo Wethu (Oyster Bay) Fisherman’s Corporation, this is not the same Umzamo Wethu that did business with the municipality,” Noble said.
Noble’s letter to Jack’s attorneys, seen by The Herald, also states that the municipality failed to respond to the AG when declarations of interests were requested.
“Had the municipality correctly responded by checking its database both when the declarations were requested and again when the communication of audit findings was issued, the municipality could easily have cleared the matter up at that time.
“Having said that, we undertook in our previous letter that should our internal review process reveal that the finding is indeed inaccurate we shall endeavour to resolve the matter accordingly.
“We will therefore engage with the municipality to effect the necessary amendments on the management report,” Noble said.
Though the AG has cleared the issue related to Umzamo Wethu, questions still linger about whether Jack did actually declare his business interests in relation to Yonke Installations.
Jack said the issue of Umzamo Wethu that was either mistakenly or purposely linked to him nullified the entire case.
“As far as I’m concerned, this entire story is dead now because of that Umzamo Wethu confusion,” he said.
“The first time when the EFF brought the issue of declarations up they saw that it wasn’t going anywhere, what motivated them to bring it up again was their so-called ‘smoking gun’ of Umzamo Wethu, which is not even my business.”
In relation to Yonke Installations, Jack said he had made a declaration to the city in February 2022 after he learnt that the company had done work with the municipality.
“You will also recall that the local government elections were in November 2021 and the tender to Yonke was awarded around the same time and paid around February the following year.
“When I saw that there was work done by my people with the municipality, I wrote a letter of disclosure to declare this and submitted all the necessary documents.”
He said he had never received a response from the city.
Asked why he did not make a declaration as soon as the company found out it had been awarded the tender, Jack said he did not know all the tenders the business received.
“I don’t know what tender the business gets on a daily basis.
“I’m a non-executive director and I sit in quarterly meetings and get reports.”
EFF councillor Khanya Ngqisha, who has been calling for Jack’s removal, said the deputy mayor was new in politics and did not understand the code of conduct for councillors.
Ngqisha said there was a rule that stated councillors were not allowed to do business with the municipality and Jack’s declaration was an admission of guilt.
“He breached this rule and that’s clear for the mere fact that he declared that his company accepted money from the municipality is an admission of guilt.”
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