Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni may be probed for alleged fraud

The integrity committee of the ANC may look into fraud allegations against Minister of Small Business Development Khumbudzo Ntshavheni following a damning high court judgment that implicated her in a tender irregularity about 11 years ago.

An ANC Youth League subregion in Limpopo has written to the integrity committee asking for an investigation into fraud allegations against her. Committee chairperson George Mashamba confirmed receipt of the letter from the league.

“We will look into it and act accordingly as required by law,” he said.

In a Limpopo High Court ruling in Polokwane in May this year, Judge Gerrit Cornelius Muller ordered that the award of the tender (No-19-2009) on 7 July, 2009 should be set aside and the service level contract, inclusive any oral amendment, should also be declared null and void.

Muller further ordered that Ntshaveni should pay the cost of the application and that the copy of the judgment should be forwarded to the deputy director of public prosecutions. This, however, did not impress Ntshavheni, who later filed a civil suit against the municipality.

“We can confirm that our client has instituted a legal action against the Ba-Phalaborwa municipality in respect of the misrepresentation made during the reactive review publication in the high court.

“Without the knowledge of our client, the municipality misrepresented certain statements in its papers before the court, of which the said papers were never served to our client, nor was our client ever contacted to confirm or deny her involvement in the alleged oral agreement.

“The misrepresentation by the municipality led the court to draw a certain conclusion without having the benefit of our client’s version,” Ntshavheni’s attorney, Lugisani Mantsha, said in a media statement.

In response to the lawsuit, municipal manager for the Ba-Phalaborwa municipality, Maite Moakamela, said the municipality welcomed the ruling by the court. “She has no legal standing as she should be acting against Makwande as they are the ones who took her to court.

“The municipality’s position has always been that Makwande did not tender,” she said.

The R584,000 tender was issued by the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality, where Ntshavheni was the municipal manager in 2009 before she was appointed as minister by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his Cabinet in 2018.

In June 2009, Ntshavheni had allegedly appointed Makwande Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors to prepare the municipality’s 2008-09 annual financial statements. The tender was advertised in one national daily newspaper in June and its closing date was 10am on 30 June, 2009.

The register showed Makwande did not make the list of bidding companies.