Businessmen held in swoop on tender-fraud suspects

In the first major bust, The Times reports that eight tender-fraud suspects, including businessmen and government officials, were arrested in dawn raids in Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg and Durban. Assets worth R200m were seized. According to the report, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe came out with guns blazing yesterday, firing at officials who loot state coffers to fund lavish lifestyles. The report quotes Radebe as saying: 'Today's arrests and seizures of assets must send a message to every Doubting Thomas that there is indeed a political will on our part to combat corruption.' The report notes that this is the first major bust in the government's recently announced drive to arrest 100 state employees within five years and recover from each of them assets worth R5m. Radebe denied that political considerations influenced the prosecution of officials. Full report in The Times See also a report in The Citizen

Eight people appeared in court in two provinces yesterday following the crackdown by the Hawks and the Asset Forfeiture Unit, says a report on the News24 site. The operation saw the seizure of assets including a Lear jet. According to the report, this follows alleged attempts to defraud the provincial health department by inflating the prices of water purification equipment for hospitals. The men face fraud, corruption and money laundering charges and charges under the Public Finance Management Act, the National Prosecuting Authority said. In the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court, former KwaZulu-Natal health department head Dr Busi Nyembezi was granted bail of R50 000. Bail was set at R20 000 for the department's former procurement officer Mdu Ntshangase, and at R10 000 for the provincial legislature's current chief financial officer Sipho Buthelezi. In Cape Town's Specialised Commercial Crime Court, Uruguayan national Gaston Savoi was granted bail of R200 000. Savoi also represented accused number six on the charge sheet, namely a company called Intaka Holdings, the company that allegedly supplied the water purification plants at the inflated rate. His co-accused, businessmen Fernando Praderi (also an Uruguayan national), Ansano Romani, Donald Miller and Ronald Geddes, were granted bail of R50 000 each. The case was postponed to 2 December when all the accused will appear in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court. Full report on the News24 site

Corruption in municipalities is also under the spotlight. A report in The Times says the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs has declared war on politicians and businessmen involved in municipal tender corruption. According to the report, the police, the Special Investigating Unit and private investigators have exposed a string of corrupt deals and heaps of mismanaged money at a North West municipality. Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka said investigators uncovered a 'Mafia' of politicians, administrators and business people in North West. He said they were involved in tender rigging that resulted in kick-backs. Full report in The Times

Meanwhile, Cosatu has asked that suspected corrupt activities in the North West government should be reported only to the police and not to politicians and department heads. SABC News reports that according to Cosatu provincial secretary Solly Phetoe, the decision had been taken by its provincial executive committee. Phetoe said some of the province's MECs and councillors were compromised in favour of politicians, who were employed to pursue corrupt activities for personal interests. 'The police are also reminded to do what they must do as many (officials) are still going to be arrested in this North West province.' All workers were requested to provide information of corrupt activities to Cosatu leaders in the province, the report says. Full SABC News report

A group of Limpopo business people has started proceedings to challenge what it considers a flawed process to award a R250m contract to people seen as friends of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, says a report in The Sunday Independent. It notes lawyers acting for the Forum of Limpopo Entrepreneurs have written to Dr Aggrey Morake, head of the Department of Health, warning him of imminent legal action following his decision to change the bid committee looking into the tender for waste removal from the province's health institutions. They alleged the bid committee was changed in order to manipulate the outcome of the process. Full report in The Sunday Independent (subscription needed)

Staying with allegation of tender rigging, the Department of Trade and Industry and Cipro have forked out R1.69m for investigations of allegations that senior officials at the companies' registration body's office had rigged a multimillion-rand tender. A Weekend Argus report says Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies revealed that his department had paid R998 814 for an independent company to conduct a forensic investigation at the Companies and Properties Registration Office, while Cipro paid R697 580 for the Auditor-General to probe tender-rigging. The investigation related to a R153m information technology contract at Cipro given to a company without processes being properly followed. Full Weekend Argus report (subscription needed)

Police have swooped on their own provincial headquarters in KwaZulu-Natal, seizing documents and computers as part of an investigation into a suspected accommodation tender scam involving two senior police officials and an Umhlanga businessman. A report in The Mercury says the raids by the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, commonly known as the Hawks, took place at the offices in Bram Fischer (Ordnance) Road, as well as at the home of one of the policemen and the home and office of the businessman Thoshan Panday. According to the paper's source, the police colonel works in the supply chain management department and was involved with procurement procedures involving 'a few' of Panday's companies. Full report on the IoL site

Developments over the past two weeks - among them the SIU probe into seven government departments - have given the public a glimmer of hope that something is finally being done to root out corruption, says a Sunday Times editorial. The paper points out that many of the cases it mentions in the editorial involve junior or mid-level government officials. It remains to be seen whether this renewed anti-corruption battle will reach the upper echelons of the state, where the problem appears to be as endemic. The editorial notes that Zuma deserves applause for making all the right noises against this scourge, and the SIU and other institutions are to be applauded for taking decisive steps against those suspected of wrongdoing. But, says the paper, Zuma must not be blind to the accusation that shady business deals are being snapped up by members of his family and his political associates. Full Sunday Times editorial