STATEMENT TO THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL
20 AUGUST 2020
CITY OF CAPE TOWN R44 MILLION ON TENTS AND WESTERN CAPE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT’S R111,8 MILLION PPE PROCUREMENT FROM A “COMPANY” OPERATING OUT OF A HOUSE IN EDGEMEAD MUST BE INVESTIGATED
South Africans are sick to death of greedy opportunists, dishonest politicians and careless governments allowing our coffers to be a cash-cow for their friends, political parties, and themselves.
Some of us have expressed outrage of Covid-19 procurement corruption happening elsewhere but without any scrutiny of what is happening right here in our Province and in our towns and cities.
The City of Cape Town’s disastrous and inhumane Strandfontein Camp operated for 6 weeks and cost the people of this city a whopping R53 million. Included in that R53 million is R44 million for tent hire. That is obscene.
For R53 million the city could have acquired a building and refitted it to be a permanent solution for the homeless. Just look at how quickly, and at what cost the CTICC was converted into a highly advanced hospital with 800 beds.
This procurement demonstrates shocking poor judgment and financial recklessness. It stinks of funds being funnelled to so-called Covidpreneurs
I have submitted the evidence gathered to date to the A-G, and asked the SIU to investigate this procurement under the President’s special Covid-19 proclamation. We must know who benefitted and if the rumours that the contracts went to well-known gang-lords are true. Wasteful expenditure must be recovered.
Then there is the Western Cape Education Department’s 87 tenders for PPE – amounting to R112 million. A single supplier got 74 of the 87 tenders and were paid R111,8 million or 99.8% of all PPE spending.
That supplier is a close corporation called Masiqhame Trading 1057 – clearly a shelf company.
It has absolutely no digital presence, no website and no business address. It has no obvious track-record in the supply of medical equipment and it appears to operate out of a residential address in Edgemead.
Who is Masiqhame Trading 1057? How did they get nearly 100% of the all the Education Department’s spend and earn themselves a whopping R111,8 million in 3 months?
Both the ANC and the DA must reveal their Covidpreneurs and the money must come back to the taxpayers.