Johannesburg – Details of a R35.7 million payment, spanning eight years paid to Molelwane Consulting, a company owned by City of Johannesburg mayor Geoff Makhubo and Regiments Capital, were laid bare at the Zondo commission this week.
But Makhubo’s predecessor as mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba, who is also Action SA leader, said they want action taken against Makhubo for his conduct.
Mashaba said they will push for the authorities to act against Makhubo.
The payments occurred during the eight year period between 2008 and 2011 in which Makhubo served as the treasurer of the ANC’s greater Johannesburg region and later, as the MMC for Finance for the City of Johannesburg.
The payments are in relation to Gupta-linked Regiments Capital, which was contracted to manage the City of Johannesburg’s Sinking Fund, paying 10% profits gained from its contract with the council to Molelwane.
In May 2011 Makhubo became MMC for Finance for the Johannesburg council and would resign his position at Molelwane Consulting in November of the same year but surprisingly said that he remained the sole signatory of the company and “watched over” financial affairs.
The contract between the City of Johannesburg and Regiments was extended in 2011 but Makhubo said that Molelwane had not been part of the Request For Proposal as he now was involved in the city’s finance department and responsible for oversight on contracts, including Regiment Capital’s Sinking Fund contract.
Although Makhubo had resigned, the commission was told that this resignation had not been registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission while he continued being in charge of the company’s financial affairs.
Makhubo, despite the unverified resignation from Molelwane, continued to sign off cheques that ranged between R200 000 and R300 000. Signatures which he confirmed to the commission as being his, reflected on the cheques but Makhubo strangely did not recall the transactions.
Makhubo said that although he was still managing the accounts of Molelwane Consulting he did not believe that there was a conflict of interest in this arrangement.
Earlier in the week ENS Forensics managing director Steven Powell, testifying before the commission, revealed that the city had also been embroiled in another tender scandal involving the bankrolling of the ANC in Johannesburg with funds from city contracts.
Powell told Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that EOH Holdings bank funded the ANC at the same time that the City of Johannesburg had a tender to upgrade its IT infrastructure. The tender, Powell said, was to the tune of R404- million including value added tax.
Action SA leader Herman Mashaba said his party would continue to lead the campaign against Makhubo but not through the “petty display of placards witnessed outside Council today”, but through engagements with the NPA to secure private prosecutions.
“I’m urging all Councillors in the City of Joburg – including those who helped elect him and those who kept him in government by supporting his budget – to do the right thing and vote him out in a motion of no confidence. Geoff Makhubo belongs in prison chains, not mayoral chains. Geoff Makhubo will see jail,” Mashaba said.
Political Bureau