Former domestic worker turned informal trader landed R35m government contract

The owner and director of a Gauteng-based IT company that landed a R35m security systems subcontract with the department of home affairs is a former domestic worker turned informal trader with no experience in the IT sector. 

Dorcas Qebengu’s company, Aim-Right Trading 102 — a little-known IT company from the Vaal — landed a 30% slice of the R119m contract to install IT firewall hardware. The company was subcontracted to Foursight Business IT Solutions and tasked with installing the hardware at the department’s offices in Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.

The firewall systems are used to secure networks against hacking as well as preventing unauthorised access to systems containing information linked to identity documents, passports, and birth, death and marriage certificates. 

TimesLIVE Investigations has established that Qebengu is an informal trader who sells stationery to pupils. She said she has never worked a day in the IT industry. 

The bid requirements for securing the contract was that Foursight had to cede 30% of the tender to a subcontractor, whose business had to be IT security and run by a woman.

Aim-Right was due to be paid R35m for its part in rolling out the IT security system. But according to Foursight owner Johanna Phenya, Aim-Right was paid just more than R1m before she terminated the contract after she started to suspect wrongdoing.

Siya Qoza, the department’s spokesperson, told TimesLIVE Investigations Aim-Right had not been properly vetted and due diligence processes for the appointment of both companies were flouted.

He said the department issued the tender for the firewalls in January 2021 after the previous tender had lapsed.

“The tender was for the appointment of a service provider for the procurement of hardware, licences, support and maintenance of the firewall solution for five years.”

He confirmed that a requirement of the bid was that 30% of the contract be subcontracted.

“This translates to about R35m.”

Qebengu, speaking from her backyard room in Sebokeng, confirmed she started Aim-Right and was its director, “but I have never worked in the IT sector”.

“Because I am not well-educated, I asked my brother to take over the company. If there is anything required for me to sign, he brings it to me and I sign.”

She said as far she knew, this was the first government contract their company had secured.

Company records show that Qebengu’s brother, Pilane Mogomotsi, was — until recently — also the director of the company. He recently resigned.

“I sometimes get small monies from the company. But not a lot. My brother also does not work at the moment.”

Qebengu said she only learnt of the Foursight contract when an “investigator” contacted her last year to talk about the company and her identity. Phenya, however, said she appointed them after receiving an email from Qebengu, who insists it must have been her brother who drafted the email. Her brother has declined to answer questions put to him by TimesLIVE Investigations.

Aim-Right Trading has been at the centre of an internal disciplinary hearing in the department after auditing firm BDO was tasked with investigating the tender, which Foursight was awarded in February 2021.

It was shortly after BDO’s forensic investigation was launched that Phenya said she blew the whistle on alleged irregularities and fraud involving Aim-Right. She also testified before the internal disciplinary hearing of the department’s now former IT security system director Zakhele Khuzwayo.

BDO’s investigations revealed that Khuzwayo’s brother, Menziwa Khuzwayo, is a senior official at Aim-Right.

TimesLIVE Investigations can reveal that two months before Phenya's husband Marumo was gunned down in Roodepoort on October 17, he and his wife received a chilling phone call warning them a hit had been taken out on them.

The caller, identifying himself as Xolani, urged the couple, who were celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary in Greece, to meet him.

TimesLIVE has been given exclusive access to a recording of the call.

“It’s a life and death situation ... we have been after your husband, [we know] where you work ... we know where you drop off your children in the mornings and pick them up in the afternoons. We also know all the registrations [number plates] of all your vehicles.

“I am a hitman, and a hit has been put on you and your husband. We tried to meet you and you declined. I wanted to know what method we should use to sort out the matter ... In just a matter of days ... hitmen are going to come. You guys will be murdered.”

It was a warning they failed to heed, though they reported it to the police.

Marumo, who was Foursight’s business development manager, was shot 10 times after he stopped at an intersection in Hendrik Potgieter Road shortly after he dropped off their children at school.

The murder occurred three weeks after Phenya began testifying at Khuzwayo’s disciplinary hearing. She testified against another department official two weeks ago.

Asked if the threats and murder were linked to the contract, Phenya said: “Without a doubt ... When the disciplinary began the threats began.”

Though the couple never met Xolani, they reported the threat to police. He was never arrested, and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Phenya said police came to them in September and showed them CCTV footage from a Kyalami estate of a man they believed to be Xolani.

“When we asked why they did not arrest him they told us they needed to make a [court] application. On September 14 we asked the police what progress was made, and they said they had not made any.

“We let our guard down when we did not hear back again from Xolani. At the time we [really] thought the police would make progress on our complaints.”

Gauteng police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili, who failed to respond to detailed questions, said: “The Provincial Serious and Violent Crimes Unit’s murder and robbery team is investigating a case of conspiracy to commit murder and murder. Investigations are ongoing.”

Nearly 400 pages of leaked internal home affairs department documents, including disciplinary reports and deeds records, show Khuzwayo’s brother, Menziwa Roman Khuzwayo, is employed as a “senior technical official” at Aim-Right, and that Zakhele Khuzwayo is a close friend of Mogomotsi.

TimesLIVE Investigations has seen photographs of Khuzwayo and Mogomotsi meeting at Cofi Restaurant in Centurion, taken shortly after Phenya raised her concerns about Aim-Right with the department last year.

Information in the documents includes letters from Phenya to the department’s DG and CFO, Livhuwani Makhode and Gordon Hollamby, raising the alarm about alleged irregularities concerning Aim-Right, including that department officials allegedly worked with the company to sabotage the tender, that National Treasury regulations were flouted and that fraud had been committed.

TimesLIVE Investigations tracked down Zakhele Khuzwayo to his Centurion home, which a deeds search shows has also been Menziwa's residential and postal address.

Asked if Menziwa was his relative and also about his relationship with Mogomotsi and Qebengu, Khuzwayo declined to comment.

Questions were also sent to Mogomotsi, who only said: “I saw your questions, but I am not at liberty to respond to them.”

Menziwa Khuzwayo failed to respond to telephone calls, emails and WhatsApp messages.

Speaking on Aim-Right's appointment, Qoza said shortly before Phenya’s complaints in May about Aim-Right, the department appointed BDO to investigate the contract’s compliance with Treasury regulations.

“BDO’s report was submitted to the DG in September. While Phenya never raised any credible allegations of corruption, the department opened a criminal case with police as recommended by BDO.

“The full findings, which cannot be shared because of current criminal and disciplinary proceedings, point to wrongdoing by both Foursight and Aim-Right. The department is seeking legal advice on the legality of the tender and its cancellation.”

He said BDO’s investigation discovered that Khuzwayo’s relative worked for Aim-Right.

“Khuzwayo resigned before his disciplinary process could start. Disciplinary proceedings are under way against other officials.”

Qoza said Khuzwayo, who worked for the department since 2004 and was the department’s IT security systems director at the time of his resignation, was part of the bid adjudication committee (BAC) and chairperson of the Bid Specification Committee.

He said the department had placed a marker on Khuzwayo’s profile, “which means he will not be able to re-enter public service for the rest of his life”.