Push to give dodgy manager a big payout

Mbombela council speaker Jimmy Mohlala was murdered after alleging corruption in a deal to build a stadium for the 2010 soccer World Cup - and a businessman linked to the contract simply quit the country.

Unscrambling the money trail, the Sunday Times has learnt that Chris Grib, the CEO of Lefika Emerging Equity, left for Dubai shortly after municipal manager Jacob Dladla allegedly transferred R43-million into the company's bank account on December 22 last year.

Lefika, co-owned by Kaizer Chiefs manager Bobby Motaung and businessman Herbert Theledi, was contracted by the municipality to build the R1-billion Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.

The transfer was authorised and signed by Dladla.

Dladla was suspended and later found guilty on several related charges in an internal disciplinary hearing, but senior ANC officials are reported still to be fighting for him to be given a golden handshake rather than the instant dismissal proposed in the findings of the hearing.

The Sunday Times has established that Grib went abroad after learning that Lefika had included a fraudulently obtained tax clearance certificate in its bid documents for the stadium tender. Police have issued a warrant for his arrest.

The South African Revenue Service has confirmed that it is investigating Lefika for fraud and that an employee accused of helping to issue the tax certificate has been suspended.

Mbombela Council speaker Jimmy Mohlala, who blew the whistle on the deal, was killed by two masked gunmen at his house in KaNyamazane, outside Nelspruit, in January last year. Nobody has been arrested.

After Mohlala blew the whistle, the municipality commissioned an investigation by Ngobe-Nkosi attorneys, which confirmed the allegations.

For a second opinion, the municipality appointed independent attorneys Kruger-Mketsi Inc to probe the allegations.

Although their findings were also not made public, it is understood that they recommended that Dladla should face a disciplinary hearing.

After 22 months on fully paid suspension, Dladla was found guilty of all five charges in December last year.

Advocate Lavery Modise, chairman of the disciplinary committee, recommended that Dladla be dismissed "without notice". But now the ANC in the province is pushing for the municipality to give Dladla a golden handshake because he is close to the political bigwigs.

Mbombela mayor Lassy Chiwayo was called to a secret meeting on Monday where he was told that Dladla must get an exit package, even though Modise recommended that he must repay the municipality R4-million in legal costs.