In a statement yesterday, Khalid Abdulla, the chief executive of Sekunjalo Investments Limited (SIL), a sister company of Sekunjalo Independent Media, the consortium that owns Independent Newspapers, said the company was pleased that Public Protector Thuli Madonsela had found no evidence of any wrongdoing on its part in the fisheries patrol tender.
The company disagreed with the finding that it had a conflict of interest, but agreed with the public protector that there had never been any concealment by it of the relationship between the four bidders: SIL, Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium, Premier Fishing and Premier Fishing Consortium.
The company had been pilloried in the media, particularly by Pieter van Dalen, a DA MP, who had suggested that the consortium was not qualified to do the job, that it had engaged in corrupt practices, and so on.
Abdulla said these defamatory statements had been “thoroughly debunked by the public protector, and it was appropriate for all those who had falsely accused the company of fraud and corruption to withdraw their scurrilous allegations and apologise publicly”.