Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde’s department approved a R1.1 billion lease with President Jacob Zuma’s long-standing friend, property mogul Roux Shabangu, for new police headquarters in Durban - less than a month after she came into office.
Her predecessor, Geoff Doidge - now South Africa’s ambassador to Sri Lanka - put the deal on ice in September last year, along with the R500 million lease agreement for new SAPS headquarters in Pretoria, pending probes by the Special Investigating Unit and the public protector. Doidge was axed in Zuma’s cabinet reshuffle in October.
The 27-storey building in Anton Lembede (Smith) Street in Durban’s CBD was bought by Donview Trading in March last year for R50m, according to advocate Stoffel Fourie, head of the public protector’s good governance and integrity unit. The name of the company later changed to Roux Property Fund, Fourie said.
“The transfer of the ownership of the building never went through because as part of the agreement there were certain guarantees, but he (Shabangu) couldn’t comply with the conditions,” said Fourie.
Yet on November 26 last year, a provincial Department of Public Works official and a representative of Shabangu’s company concluded an agreement to lease the building at a cost of R1.1bn for nine years and 11 months.
The lease agreement was, however, cancelled in March - soon after public protector Thuli Madonsela released her findings on the investigation into the disputed lease agreement for the new Pretoria SAPS headquarters - a building owned by Shabangu.
Fourie, the chief investigator in the public protector’s current investigation into the Durban building, said it was yet to be established whether public works or Shabangu’s company had decided to terminate the lease, or whether they had “mutually agreed” to do so. He said the lease agreement could not continue as Shabangu had not become the official owner of the property.
He confirmed that national police commissioner General Bheki Cele approved the needs analysis for the building.
In her report on the Pretoria lease, released in February this year, Madonsela found that while Cele had not signed the lease agreement, as the accounting officer he was “solely responsible” to ensure that the proper procedures were followed and that his conduct was “improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration”.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde’s role came under scrutiny as she approved the deal despite the opinion of two counsel that the lease agreement was not lawful.
Approached for comment on Tuesday, Shabangu responded angrily: “It has nothing to do with anybody what I do with my money... whether I bought the building or had bought the building has nothing to do with you or anybody for that matter.
“I don’t have to explain myself to anybody … I don’t give a s*** about all of the s*** you have been asking me. Write your s***. I don’t give a s***, I don’t give a s***, I don’t give a chickens*** what you write.
“I have not stolen one thing, not one cent from anybody. If you say you serve the interest of the people of South Africa you should write the truth, we have a joint responsibility to be accountable,” said Shabangu.
Before his outburst he could neither confirm nor deny that his company had entered into the R1.1bn lease with public works, or why the contract had been cancelled.
Shabangu said it was important for South Africa to know that the lease for the Durban building was now out to tender.
“How can I have a deal that is out there? That’s what you should be telling the people of this country so they know that it is out on tender so that they can’t say, ‘How did he (Shabangu) get it?’ As if I’m not supposed to get it.”
Thamsanqa Mchunu, public works spokesman, said: “There is no building for which the Department of Public Works has signed a lease for the SAPS in Durban.” Neither Cele nor his spokeswoman Nonkululeko Mbatha answered calls made to them.
Fourie said the investigation was at an advanced stage, with only two more witnesses to be interviewed.
Asked about Mahlangu-Nkabinde’s responsibility as the political head of the department in the lease agreement being signed, and a lease in excess of R1bn could have been approved without her permission, Fourie said: “You will have to wait for our report, that’s what we are investigating. I can’t pre-judge the issues and give my view on it.”
In her report on the Pretoria building, Madonsela found the lease agreement was “fatally flawed” and the contract “invalid”. Mahlangu-Nkabinde did not heed her request to await the outcome of her investigation.
Fourie said the report on the Durban lease was expected to be completed by mid-May, with the findings to be made public by the end of that month.
Last month Madonsela reached an agreement with Justice Minister Jeff Radebe and cabinet secretary Cassius Lubisi that she first finish the Durban lease probe so that both reports be dealt with together. - Cape Times