Ekurhuleni suspends senior official over ‘dubious tenders’

Pressure from ANC and South African Communist Party (SACP) leaders is believed to be behind yesterday’s announcement by the City of Ekurhuleni to suspend senior official and social worker Pauline Ngakane, who has been linked to a string of dubious tenders amounting to millions of rands.

Ngakane is said to have enjoyed the support of political bigwigs within the metro and awarded, among others, a multimillion-rand tender for the appointment of “accredited training service providers” to train early childhood development practitioners from July 1, 2017 until June 30, 2019.

According to SACP activist Ndzipo Kalipa, who blew the lid on Ngakane’s alleged shady deals, the service provider who won the bid provided “unaccredited training – a waste of taxpayers’ money”.

Kalipa lodged an official complaint with the Council for Social Service Professions for “unethical and corrupt behaviour, involving fraudulent tenders”.

That tender became a source of concern to the ANC, which is governing the city in coalition with the African Independent Congress. ANC ward 57 branch chair Wiseman Solwandle wrote to Ngakane on June 14, 2018, expressing “extreme astonishment and disappointment with regard to policy violations by the health and social development department”.

Many councillors in Ekurhuleni have called for an external forensic audit to probe Ngakane’s deals.

The City of Ekurhuleni said Ngakane was suspended with full pay.

It promised to launch “a full-scale investigation into the allegations – a process which is driven by the internal audit department”.

While welcoming the suspension as “a step in the right direction”, the Independent Ratepayers’ Association of South Africa national chair Izak Berg pushed for an external forensic audit.

“This is a serious matter and the internal audit has been sitting on many other cases,” said Berg.

Huge deals were given to companies alleged to belong to:

• A former prisoner who is under supervision on parole after serving 27 years’ imprisonment;
• A non-taxpaying Mozambican, said to have bought several properties in Leondale, Ekurhuleni; and
• A man who was in prison when he won a tender.

The investigation is expected to bring into sharp focus the effectiveness of Ekurhuleni’s fraud and anticorruption systems.

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