Tenders for Mahumapelo’s cronies

North West premier Supra Mahumapelo. Photo: Itumeleng English.

North West premier Supra Mahumapelo. Photo: Itumeleng English.

Published Oct 4, 2015

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Johannesburg - Serious allegations of corruption, nepotism and wasteful expenditure have been levelled against North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo by some of the former board members of the North West Transport Investments (NTI) Group, a parastatal company solely owned by the North West provincial government.

The NTI Group, through its subsidiary Northwest Star, is the primary source of transport in the North West province since its inception during the days of the erstwhile Bophuthatswana government.

With the growth of the company, transport services were also extended to thousands of commuters in some areas of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces.

The book value of the company is estimated at R6 billion and it annually transports more than 30 million passengers.

The directors, who preferred not to be identified, told The Sunday Independent that Mahumapelo and his cronies, who include politicians, friends and family members, were bleeding the NTI to death by appointing themselves in strategic positions within the organisation and illegally selling off its assets.

“There is evidence that some of the buses of the entity had actually been sold by directors who served in the previous board to themselves at below market prices. In turn, those directors who have a very close relationship with Mahumapelo were subsequently given lucrative tenders to transport learners in the province. This is corruption to the core,” said a source.

The directors said the current board of directors was disbanded by Mahumapelo when they questioned some of the deals and appointments that were made by him or his allies.

Problems started in June last year when the NTI board suspended its chairman, P Makhetha, on suspicion of financial mismanagement and flouting of supply chain management rules, they claim.

Subsequently the chief executive resigned and the chief financial officer (CFO) was suspended.

Then, in November, Mahumapelo appointed advocate Kgabo Mapotse to act as chief executive.

However, the board suspended him in February on charges of fraud, financial misconduct and gross insubordination.

Prior to being appointed as the accounting authority of NTI, Mapotse was the former NTI company secretary, charged with financial misconduct by the NTI board, which was later booted out.

He was charged for authorising the appointment of a law firm to prepare a meeting pack for the special shareholders meetings at a cost of R276 855 on February 26.

After that there was a fallout between the new chairman of the board, Themba Gwabeni, Mahu-mapelo and Mapotse.

Mapotse’s hearing lasted two weeks. It was controversially decided that he should be given a R474 788 golden handshake.

The Sunday Independent is in possession of the settlement agreement and an Absa bank proof of payment.

Problems then escalated during the annual general meeting on February 18, where the board was given a new mandate to sell NTI to Gauteng provincial government.

It was also decided that the board will continue as is until the end of the transaction.

However, the board was asked to appoint a transaction adviser.

While it was drawing up terms of reference, Mahumapelo appointed Lindi Mthunzi, who subsequently became a one-man board with chief executive and CFO powers to sign off deals.

The board was dissolved at the end of June.

This was done apparently in contravention of section 71 of the Companies Act on the removal and dissolution of a board.

North West Transport MEC Gaoage Molapisi invited directors to a board meeting via SMS on June 10, where they were told that Mahumapelo had taken a decision to dissolve the board with immediate effect.

No reasons were provided, as required by the act.

Three of the former directors are now seeking legal advice to challenge Mahumapelo’s decision.

Interestingly, the names of the dissolved board still appear on the letterheads of NTI.

However, last month, Mahu-mapelo re-appointed Mapotse as the accounting authority of the NTI.

The Sunday Independent is in possession of the appointment letter dated September 17.

Four days later, Mapotse suspended CFO Rannona Rantao.

This was after Mapotse had instructed Rantao to pay a consulting firm that is linked to one of Mapotse and Mahumapelo’s allies R842 000.

The Sunday Independent is in possession of supporting documents.

“Mapotse has become a law unto himself. This led to the sacking of four non-executive directors because Mapotse is being used to loot the NTI purse,” said another former director.

They alleged that another company, which is known to The Sunday Independent, was being used to milk the company.

“This company was recently awarded a new 14-month contract worth R855 200 without having followed proper procedures. They have been doing business with NTI since 2012.

“The same company was paid R834 720 in March without due diligence and verification whether the debt is indeed due without checking with the CFO,” said the source.

Documents and proof of payments are in possession of The Sunday Independent.

In responding to allegations levelled against him, Mapotse said: “I’m not a law unto myself and the premier is not protecting me. I dismiss all the allegations levelled against me.”

Mahumapelo’s spokeswoman, Bridgette Seokamo, could not confirm or deny most of the allegations against the premier or the status of the NTI board.

“I am aware that there were some problems with the NTI board but cannot specifically respond to most of your questions.”

She suggested we speak to MEC Wendy Nelson, who was the acting premier at the time of Mapotse’s appointment.

Nelson could, however, not be reached for comment as she was out of the country.

Vivienne Lebeko, who answered her phone, said she would be back tomorrow.

- The Sunday Independent

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