Public works DG pressured into approving police lease

The director-general of public works feared for his safety and believed his phone was being tapped as he was pressured into approving two dodgy police lease deals worth R1.6-billion.

The explosive revelations by Siviwe Dongwana are contained in a report into the lease scandal by public protector Thuli Madonsela. The report, which is marked "provisional" and will be officially released this month, is highly critical of police commissioner General Bheki Cele, Minister of Public Works Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and businessman Roux Shabangu.

The report covers leases in Pretoria and Durban and follows an earlier one slamming the Pretoria lease. It describes how Cele flouted procedure and drove a plan to move the police into new headquarters in Pretoria and Durban against the advice of several government officials. The leases were exposed by the Sunday Times in August last year.

"Due to the pressures put on me by the new minister (Mahlangu-Nkabinde) I signed the lease agreement," Dongwana told Madonsela. "If it was not for the pressures put on me, I would never have done so. By this point I was extremely stressed, tired and scared and was concerned for my personal safety and that of my family."

This is one of the revelations in the provisional report seen by the Sunday Times.

This week the report was sent to President Jacob Zuma, Mahlangu-Nkabinde, Cele, Shabangu, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Finance MinisterPravin Gordhan, among others. The report says:

• Mahlangu-Nkabinde was guilty of "improper" conduct and failed "statesmanship" for going ahead with both leases after two legal opinions found them invalid;
• Cele was guilty of "maladministration" and "unlawful" conduct for driving the R1.1-billion Durban deal;
• The Treasury should consider blacklisting Shabangu's company, Roux Property Fund, for its involvement in "unlawful and irregular procurement";
• Rentals for both buildings were inflated by up to 300%. In Durban alone, floor space worth R78-million was added without justification;
• Locating staff from the specialised child protection and sex offences units in central Durban contradicted Mthethwa's vision of bringing police closer to the communities they serve; and
• A new tender issued for the Durban lease in April - but shelved after the Sunday Times exposed it last month - was rigged to suit a previous offer by Shabangu.

The report contains the most damning findings the public protector's office has yet made against senior political figures and reveals that officials were victimised for doing their jobs.

Among them is Dongwana, who was pressured to approve the deals with Shabangu, who is close to Zuma.

Mahlangu-Nkabinde's predecessor, Geoff Doidge, had launched an internal probe that produced the first legal opinion declaring the deals unlawful. According to the report, Dongwana said Doidge himself was "under pressure" from an unknown quarter to wrap up his probe.

After Mahlangu-Nkabinde replaced Doidge last November, Shabangu became "more aggressive". Dongwana said Shabangu even showed him SMS exchanges about the leases between him and Mahlangu-Nkabinde, the report said, and boasted that Mahlangu-Nkabinde was his "elder sister".

Dongwana told investigators: "I am also convinced that communications on my phone and that of my wife were being intercepted.

"I say so because every time that I had a conversation about this matter, Shabangu would call me about the contents of the conversation shortly thereafter."

On one occasion, Dongwana said, he was surprised to learn details of the state attorney's opinion on the lease - from Shabangu. He, as director-general, had yet to even approach the state attorney.

Dongwana, who was suspended by Mahlangu-Nkabinde a month after her appointment, declined to comment. He was suspended for, among other things, insubordination and dereliction of duty.

According to the report Mahlangu-Nkabinde admitted to Madonsela she "had telephonic contact with Mr Shabangu and that she met with him personally on more than two occasions, both at her office and outside".

Yet she refused to answer specific questions, according to the report. Her spokesman, Obakeng Modikwe, yesterday promised to respond to questions by the Sunday Times but did not do so.

Madonsela's report said action ought to be taken by Zuma and Mthethwa against, respectively, Mahlangu-Nkabinde and Cele - whom she again found guilty of misconduct.

Madonsela's first report, "Against the Rules", was released in February and dealt only with the R500-million police lease deal for Sanlam Middestad in Pretoria. It, too, made serious findings against Mahlangu-Nkabinde but no action was taken against her, fuelling speculation that she may have been appointed in place of Doidge to ensure the deals went through.

The new document, titled "Against the Rules Too", is the final report on Madonsela's investigation. It incorporates findings on a deal worth R1.1-billion for leasing the Transnet building at 477 Anton Lembede (formerly Smith) Street in Durban - worth R400-million more than initially thought. The building was eventually sold for R15.8-million.

In both cases police would have leased buildings from Shabangu for 10 years without the deals going out to tender. Treasury rules say all contracts over R500000 must go out to tender.

The report documents how Cele issued an instruction that all procurement for R500000 or more had to be directly authorised by him, and then signed off on the financial details of the two leases without following proper procedure. It cites documents detailing how Cele personally identified the Durban building soon after Shabangu bought it.

Cele's protégée, KwaZulu-Natal police chief Lieutenant-General Monnye Ngobeni, conducted a site visit of the building with Shabangu's staff a month before public works was even informed, the report said. Provincial police property management head Brigadier Thembinkosi Ngema warned Ngobeni this was highly improper; he was eventually elbowed out of the deal during negotiations.

This week Shabangu refused to discuss the report.

After providing a detailed response to the Sunday Times, Cele later retracted this, saying: "We are legally barred from responding to any of your questions as they relate to an ongoing investigation by the public protector."

Public protector Mandonsela declined to comment, saying "it was supposed to be confidential until the final report is released".

hofstatters@sundaytimes.co.za; mzilikazi@sundaytimes.co.za