‘God gave it to us,’ says property broker over dodgy R40 million Gauteng tender

The Gauteng provincial government has turned to the courts to try and set aside a lease agreement for office space at the old JSE building which it’s still waiting on, almost three years – and tens of millions of taxpayers’ rands – down the line.

The agreement was entered into in December 2018, on the back of the award of a R40 million tender to an obscure property brokerage firm in Durban called Royal Grefler Institute (RGI), to secure new offices for Gauteng department of human settlements being housed in the Bank of Lisbon building before it burnt down, claiming three lives.

In November 2019, Sunday World reported the Gauteng Treasury had flagged a “dodgy” R32-million payment connected to the tender.

Human settlements spokesperson Bongiwe Gambu declined to reveal how much money had been paid over to RGI over the last three years or to comment on the matter until the court case had been finalised.

Earlier this year, the department – together with the provincial department of infrastructure development – filed papers in the Johannesburg High Court to try and set aside the agreement, laying out how it had ultimately seen the total cost of the tender more than triple.

Infrastructure development head of department Thulani Mdadane, who penned the founding affidavit, said the agreement was “unlawful and invalid” and fell foul of the constitution and the Public Finance Management Act.

RGI has not yet filed any papers but the company’s director, Dumisani Hadebe, insisted “due processes were followed in a proper way for the award of the tender”.

“And there is nothing untoward that happened to influence the bid award,” he said – adding he believed “it was God who made it possible and permitted us to receive the same bid award”.

“We are thus confident that a fair justice system shall not let us down whether we oppose the application or let it go unopposed. Let justice prevail,” he said.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za