A “significant part” of former mayor Zandile Gumede’s defence in her racketeering trial involving a R320m Durban Solid Waste contract would be that the investigation had been premeditated and manipulated by political motivation.
Gumede’s advocate Jay Naidoo told Durban high court judge Sharmaine Balton on Monday that certain influence has been put on people in a political plot to discredit Gumede and get her suspended from office.
“There was a deliberate circumvention of prescribed (SCM) processes and protocols to ensure an arrest and a prosecution of the accused which was instituted with post haste.”
Naidoo said this would form not only Gumede’s defence but also that of some of her co-accused, senior ANC councillor Mondli Mthembu, Sandile Ngcobo, deputy head of supply management, Robert Abbu, city deputy head of strategic and new developments and ANC councillors, Sdudozo Khuzwayo and Bhekokwakhe Phewa.
The trial, in which companies which benefited from the tender award and their representatives, are also in the dock, entered its second week on Monday.
Last week, Naidoo sowed the seeds of a political motive when he began cross-examining city integrity and investigations unit (CIIU) boss Mbuso Ngcobo.
He questioned how it was possible that the initial tip-off from an anonymous whistle-blower — which contained no narrative of the allegations but only official documents relating to the tender award — had been signed off as a full-blown investigation in one day.
Under cross-examination on Thursday, Ngcobo could not properly explain how the initial anonymous complaint had been logged as having been received at 3.50pm on March 7 2018, just 10 minutes before normal closing time and then, on that same day, assessor Shawn Hittler had signed off that an investigation file must be opened.
Hittler then approved his own decision.
That same evening, senior manager Dumisani Cele had approved this.
And the following day, March 8, Ngcobo gave it the final stamp of approval.
There was a deliberate circumvention of prescribed (SCM) processes and protocols to ensure an arrest and a prosecution of the accused which was instituted with post haste.
— Advocate Jay Naidoo
The investigation was then outsourced to Integrity Forensic Solutions (FSI).
Naidoo wanted the internal investigation report and the minutes of meetings which led to that decision.
But on Monday, Ngcobo said those documents did not exist, that the recommendations were made verbally, which was standard practice because of concerns about “leaks to the media”.
However, a copy of the unit’s register in which the case was logged, reflected that on March 12 that year, a decision had already been taken to outsource the investigation to IFS.
Naidoo said March 7 had been a Wednesday. March 12 was the following Monday, so the entire process had taken “less than a week”, with a weekend thrown in.
Ngcobo said IFS had been part of a panel of 17 service providers which had responded to a tender and had been authorised by then city manager Sipho Nzuza (who is accused number three) to assist the CIIU with its backlogs.
In his evidence in chief, he said IFS had been tasked with the refuse collection tender investigation because the other 16 service providers were already busy with other, unrelated investigations.
But Naidoo said from documents provided by the state, it appeared the IFS had only been accredited and appointed to the panel on March 16 that year.
He has now asked for more documents reflecting when the other service providers were engaged and what investigations they had been assigned during that period.
The state, in its indictment, alleges that Gumede and others manipulated the award of the contract to Ilanga La Mahlase, Uzuzinekele Trading, Omphile Thabang Projects, and El Shaddai Holdings Group to promote radical economic transformation and to give kickbacks to a “patronage network”, which included community-based contractors, business forums and the MKMVA who were aligned to the RET faction in the ANC.
Ngcobo is the first of what is expected to be more than 1,000 state witnesses and still has to be cross-examined by legal representatives of the other accused. The trial has been set down until March 24 and will resume again in July.
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