South Africa: Govt Ombud Calls for Action Against Minister

Giordano Stolley

14 July 2011

Pretoria — President Jacob Zuma should act against public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde for failing to co-operate with a probe into two controversial building leases, the Public Protector recommended on Thursday.

Advocate Thuli Madonsela was releasing her report titled “Against the Rules Too” on the lease of Durban’s Transnet Building to police.

She said Mahlangu-Nkabinde had “failed to meet the requisite stewardship as was expected of her”.

Her failure to co-operate with the investigation amounted to improper conduct.

Madonsela said the police’s attempts to lease the building from property tycoon Roux Shabangu company Roux Property Fund amounted to maladministration.

The failure of police chief General Bheki Cele to ensure the correct tender procedures were followed with respect to the Transnet Building amounted to maladministration, she said.

The conduct of department of public works (DPW) officials and senior police officials was also improper and unlawful.

The report into the Transnet Building lease in Durban follows her report into the Middestad Building lease in Pretoria which she released in February.

In that earlier report she found that Cele’s actions were improper, unlawful and amounted to misconduct.

On Thursday Madonsela pointed out that while Cele himself did not sign the leases, in his capacity as the chief accounting officer he gave authorisation for DPW to proceed with the leases.

Madonsela said the Durban lease would have been worth R1.16 billion over 10 years while that of the Middestad Building was worth R604 million over the same period.

She said the market value of the building meant it should have been leased at R40 a square metre and not the R125.30 a square metre ultimately agreed on.

The failure on the part of KwaZulu-Natal regional office of the DPW to address the discrepancy in the rental rates amounted to maladministration, Madonsela said.

The DPW’s failure to report the deviation from standard tender procedures to the National Treasury also amounted to maladministration.

Referring to former director general Siviwe Dongwana’s (CORR) claim that he felt pressured to approve the lease, she said she could not find any direct evidence of this.

The police and Shabangu had denied putting pressure on him, but Madonsela said she was inclined to believe Dongwana because “towards the end of November he changed mysteriously”.

She said that Dongwana, who took office in July 2010 and was then suspended in December 2010, had initially acted properly and even commissioned a survey to determine the correct market price for the building.

“Nothing seemed to explain the 360 degree turn in his behaviour,” she said.

She said that police appeared to adapt their needs for office space to the building on offer. According to the findings in her report, both buildings were identified by Cele.

“In both instances there was no legitimate urgency that justified a deviation from the open prescribed tender process. In both instances the service provider (Roux Property Fund) made contact with officials at the SAPS and DPW and is alleged to have put pressure on them in regard to the finalisation of the procurement process.”

She said the fact that the lease of the Transnet building was not budgeted for by SAPS amounted to maladministration. She said warnings and advice from the DPW was “regarded by the SAPS as interference in its affairs”.

AllAfrica – All the Time