Key points in the four years between Julius Malema taking over the ANCYL and his appearance in court on corruption charges.
2008
April Julius Malema is elected as ANCYL president in Mangaung.
July Cassel Mathale takes over as Limpopo ANC chairman.
July Malema’s business partner, Lesiba Gwangwa, instructs lawyers to register SGL Engineering Projects.
End of 2008
Malema registers his Ratanang Family Trust.
2009
April
*Gwangwa registers On-Point Engineers.
* Gwangwa converts SGL into a company and adds Malema as a 70 percent shareholder.
* He fraudulently adds engineer Arthur Phetla as a director to boost firm’s credentials.
May President Jacob Zuma appoints Cassel Mathale as Limpopo premier.
June-August Gwangwa registers his Gwangwa Family Trust.
August Limpopo Roads and Transport MEC Pinky Kekana suspends R300 million in roads tenders, freezes Roads Agency Limpopo’s R1.2 billion budget, dissolves the agency’s board and shifts some of its budget to the department’s mooted project management unit (PMU).
* Ntau Letebele is appointed as Limpopo’s roads and transport head.
* Letebele advertises three-year, R52m PMU tender.
* The tender is advertised for 20 days instead of 30 as required by National Treasury.
* Gwangwa misrepresents his company’s credentials in order to get the tender, saying it had nine years of experience although it had only one month.
August/October
* Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) board chairman advocate Edwin Makwela is forced out and replaced by businessman and Malema ally Sello Rasethaba.
* Letebele appoints external people to be part of a committee that evaluated the On-Point tender.
* The committee disqualifies On-Point’s three competitors for failing to include a covering letter.
* It considers On-Point’s bid even though the company fails to submit the required valid tax clearance certificate.
October
* On-Point is awarded the PMU tender after all other competitors were disqualified.
* Rasethaba and Kekana pay RAL CEO Bohani Shibambu R1.6m to leave his position with a year remaining on his three-year contract.
2010
Jan/May
* Letebele irregularly appoints On-Point’s employees to serve in a departmental committee that awards PMU tenders.
* On-Point signs corrupt “back to back” deals with contractors which entitle the company to a share of the profit of the tenders it awarded as part of the PMU.
June
* Malema’s Ratanang Family Trust pays R900 000 cash for a plot in Polokwane.
September
* Malema and Gwangwa offer On-Point shareholders Kagisho Dichabe and Thomas Rasethaba R3m to walk.
* Malema and Gwangwa or On-Point buy properties and cars worth more than R10m.
2011
May/June On-Point pays hundreds of thousands of rand towards the ANCYL conference that re-elected Malema.
July
* City Press exposes the existence of the Ratanang Family Trust as Malema’s slush fund.
* Public Protector Thuli Madonsela investigates corruption allegations against Malema and On-Point.
September
* Limpopo government goes bankrupt and asks the National Treasury for a R1.1bn bailout.
* On-Point and other companies owned by Malema’s allies are blamed for the crisis.
November
* On-Point starts paying Malema’s trust dividends worth millions of rand.
December 5: The cabinet places five key Limpopo provincial departments under administration.
2012
February
* Malema is fired from the ANC.
* On-Point and Malema go bankrupt and fail to pay Sars millions of rand.
April
Forensic investigators and the Hawks swoop on the offices of On-Point, Letebele and other suspects.
May
Sars summons Gwangwa, On-Point and other Malema allies to a tax evasion judicial inquiry.
August
* Madonsela releases her provisional report, which confirms that the On-Point tender was unlawful and corrupt.
* The report confirms that Malema benefited by R2m from the corrupt tender.
* It also fingers Gwangwa and Letebele in corruption and fraud.
Mid-September: Sars obtains a R16m judgment against Malema for unpaid taxes.
September 21: Hawks secure warrant for Malema’s arrest.
September 25: Gwangwa and Malema’s business associate, Selby Manthata, hand themselves over to the police and appear in court.
September 26: Malema due to appear in court over corruption, fraud and money-laundering charges.
The Star