Durban - Durban's director of key accounts management Rakesh Dhaniram is next to face the music in the disciplinary hearings for the 10 public works officials accused of a myriad irregularities during their involvement in the controversial upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.
The hearings commenced in 2014 but had to be temporarily suspended following a legal dispute over whether the media should have access to the proceedings.
They resumed in Durban this past week after the court ruled in the media’s favour.
The 11 officials involved in the Nkandla project are being investigated as per the recommendations of the Special Investigation Unit’s (SIU) report.
Dhaniram’s hearing is scheduled to commence on Wednesday and will run over three days.
His co-accused in the matter are Durban-based senior project manager Jean Rindel, Thuli Ngubane, director: finance and supply chain manager, Nelisiwe Hlengwa; deputy director: disposals, Belinda Mlota; director of prestige projects in Cape Town, Itumeleng Molosi; director of projects in Pretoria, Irene Nel; deputy director: key accounts management, Trevor Watson; project manager Bheki Dlamini; acting manager: supply chain management, Sibusiso Chonco; deputy director: utilisation and contracts; as well as Jayshree Pardesi, director of key accounts management from Pretoria.
Chonco appeared briefly this week on Wednesday but did not testify. He had sent his lawyer to present a medical certificate to the panel on Tuesday.
According to the SIU report, Dhaniram, Chonco and Ngubane flouted the open tender procedures in approving “a nominated procurement strategy for emergency building and civil works”.
The alleged deviation from department procurement procedures reportedly cost the government millions of rand in irregular expenditure.
The report further states that, out of the 15 contractors and consultants appointed for the project, only two were awarded contracts after valid procurement processes and those were Mustapha and Cachalia Engineers and Ramcon CC - they were paid R2.8 million and just over R5m respectively.
“Even when officials were aware of what their obligations were, on a number of occasions they simply failed to fulfil them because of, among other reasons, the absence of moral courage to do the right thing or simply failure to apply their minds to the matter,” reads the report on what could have led to the alleged “deliberate ignorance” of the regulations.
Last year Zuma paid R7.8 million following a Constitutional Court ruling that some of the upgrades in Nkandla were non-security features and therefore taxpayers’ money should not have been utilised.
These included R2.3m renovations of the infamous “fire pool”, the amphitheatre for R1m, almost R2m for the visitors' centre, a R1.2m cattle kraal and R250000 for the chicken run.
However, this does not exonerate public works officials currently under investigation.
While the other officials have reportedly indicated that they would not be pleading guilty, in 2014 Molosi pleaded guilty to irregularly appointing contractors and flouting procurement procedures. He was suspended for two months, but it is not clear whether he has undergone retraining on the Public Finance Management Act, as per the SUI’s recommendation.
The DA has criticised the Department of Public Works for focusing their investigation only on officials, while the contractors who allegedly benefited from the flouting of procurement procedures seem to be going unpunished.
This comes as the department is reportedly making preparations to refurbish some of the houses that were built during the upgrades which are now in a less desirable state as a result of poor workmanship by the contractors.
In 2014, parts of a R8.2m fence surrounding the homestead were already falling apart, just two years after it was erected.