Mangaung mayor says directorship in G4S-linked companies ‘not a paying job’

Mangaung Metro Mayor Itumeleng John ‘Papi’ Mokoena, who is a director at a company doing business with the British private prison contractor G4S , claimed he isn’t doing any paid work while serving as a full-time councillor and mayor.

Mokoena and his brother, Lebohang Joseph Mokoena, are directors of the lucrative Bloemfontein Correctional Contracts (BCC), in which beleaguered G4S is one of the shareholders. The companies are in a public-private partnership in managing the infamous Mangaung Correctional Center (MCC).

The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) lists nine directors, including the Mokoenas and a company secretary, as active.

BCC even listed G4S’s head office in Centurion as its physical address.

According to Justice and Correctional Service Minister Ronald Lamola, government pays the public-private partnership of G4S and BCC costs R45 million every month to manage around 3000 MCC prisoners.

The daring escape of Facebook rapist Thabo Bester from the facility in May last year, allegedly helped by prison warders plied with cash and gifts, has brought forward the endemic problems at the facility.

The 25-year multi-billion rand tender is expected to end in 2026.

‘I don’t get paid’

The municipal code of conduct forbids full-time councillors, including mayors, to take up paid work elsewhere, unless council agrees. Mayors are accountable to council.

ALSO READ: Who is G4S, the company that runs the Mangaung Correctional Centre?

When contacted for comment regarding his directorship, the newly installed mayor said nothing prevents him from serving on a company board.

“When you are full-time you can’t work somewhere else, but you can serve as a trustee or at an NGO where you do not earn money, directorship is something different.

“There’s nothing stopping a councillor from serving on a board. There are directors who don’t get paid, I don’t get any payments,” he said on Tuesday.

A council insider said before his election in council, Mokoena told other opposition parties leaders that he was a “shareholder director.”

“It became a big issue in the meeting when he was asked about the companies and whether his affairs were in order.

“He told us he was just the link between G4S and the government and not earning money. Council has not verified that information as things stand,” said the source.

Another insider who attended the same meeting said the new mayor told party leaders he was no longer a company director.

“His explanation was very vague, he didn’t even produce any documents as proof.”

Mangaung municipal spokesperson Qondile Khedama referred questions to former council whip Vumile Nikelo, whose phone went unanswered.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Thabo Bester – DA’s Glynnis Breytenbach rips into G4S report

The Mokoenas’ other enterprises

BCC was registered in 1998.

The Mokoena brothers are also directors in many other companies such as Ten Alliance Mangaung and Tshimo Investments, and the Ihkwezi Community Trust.

BCC, Ten Alliance Mangaung and Ikhwezi Community Trust all list their physical address as that of the G4S head office in Centurion, Gauteng.

Mokoena is the leader of the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats (AASD) and is not new to politics.

He is an ex-ANC member who was also Mangaung mayor between 2000 and 2005 when the party fired him.

He later faced a myriad of corruption, fraud and racketeering charges filed against him, his wife and several others.

Mokoena and his wife were acquitted in the Free State High Court in 2012.

The chaotic Mangaung council removed the ANC and elected him mayor unopposed four days ago. Most of the 51 ANC councillors boycotted the sitting.

Of the total 101 council members, only 53 were present at Friday’s special council meeting, including expelled ANC councillors. They helped the opposition to unseat the governing party.

The ANC on Tuesday obtained another court interdict nullifying last week’s council meeting and the subsequent mayoral election.

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