EThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba has again declined to comment on the latest scandal to hit the city hall, namely his alleged family link to a R3 billion tender “hijack”.
On Monday, The Mercury revealed that Mlaba was an alleged “silent” partner in a firm, Environmental Waste Solutions (EWS), which was controversially identified by the city as the preferred bidder for a tender to convert waste to energy at the Bisasar Road landfill.
EWS’s majority shareholder was Durban businessman Richard Wardrop, who appears to have been muscled out of the proposed deal by some of his minority shareholders, who included Mlaba’s daughters, Thandeka and Thabiso.
The Mlaba daughters and others, including local estate agent Leon Boshoff, formed a new company with a similar name, Own Environmental Waste Solutions (Pty) Ltd. It is this company that apparently “hijacked” the original bid involving Wardrop.
Deputy city manager Derek Naidoo, who heads the bid adjudication, could not say whether or not an investigation would be launched or the bid process would be halted.
“That’s not for me to decide. That’s for the committee to decide. Obviously we will take cognisance of what is in the media, but we will also have to look at all the contractual issues.”
Naidoo said the committee would meet within 10 days, but it all depended on whether or not the “matter was ready for the committee”.
Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesman Lennox Mabaso said: “At this stage we can’t say anything. The minister will make a statement during the week.”
The IFP’s Bonga Mdletshe called on the provincial government to investigate. “We will be interested to see if the latest twist in the saga, namely the reported link between eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba and a flawed R3bn tender, will at last elicit a meaningful response from the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.”
DA caucus leader Tex Collins said if allegations published in The Mercury were correct those concerned should be “brought to account”.
EWS was the trading name given to a shelf company bought by Wardrop for the project. He told The Mercury he owned 60 percent, while 20 percent was owned by the Mlaba Family Trust - with the mayor allegedly one of the silent partners - and 20 percent belonged to Bheki Mtolo.
EWS was named preferred bidder despite a report from a technical specialist at Durban’s waste unit, expressing concern over its ability to deliver on the project.
The official, John Parkin, also expressed concern that the company the city was originally corresponding with had changed “and we are receiving correspondence from a company with a completely different letterhead”.
According to specialist reports to the bid adjudication committee, another Durban-based company, Re-Ethical (commonly known as re-) was, in fact, the only company which had submitted a proper proposal, and should be awarded the bid.
That company’s MD, Tadek Tomaszewski, told The Mercury that a meeting had been chaired by Mlaba on November 30, 2009, in which the mayor had asked for a partnership deal.
During that meeting Mlaba had referred to the project “as his retirement plan”, he said.
According to documents in The Mercury’s possession, on February 23 last year, city manager Michael Sutcliffe gave DSW the authority to negotiate with EWS as the preferred bidder.
The confirmation letter, two days later, from DWS’s Raymond Rampersad, was addressed to Leon Boshoff of EWS (Pty) Ltd.
Andile Khoza, the lawyer for Boshoff and Thandeka Mlaba, did not return calls on Monday. - The Mercury