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Herman Mashaba calls for Makhubo’s removal after EOH payments

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 26 Nov 2020
Johannesburg mayor Geoffrey Makhubo.
Johannesburg mayor Geoffrey Makhubo.

Herman Mashaba, former Johannesburg mayor, is calling for the urgent removal of his successor, Geoffrey Makhubo, after the latter was named as a beneficiary of “suspicious payments” made by ICT services company EOH to politically-connected individuals.

Mashaba, who now leads political party ActionSA, says he is committed to making sure Makhubo sees his day in court for “his abuse” of the people of Johannesburg.

Until that day, he says, ActionSA calls “upon every councillor in the City of Johannesburg to support a motion of no confidence. Any councillor who failed to do so, including those who supported Makhubo’s budget earlier this year, will be culpable of the continued looting of Johannesburg.”

A web of “suspicious payments” was unravelled yesterday at the Zondo Commission by Steven Powell, ENSafrica lead investigator, who probed the EOH’s tender irregularities that threatened to collapse the JSE-listed company.

In his submissions, Powell named Makhubo as one of the individuals who irregularly received payments from EOH through his company, Molwewane Consulting.

At the time, Makhubo was treasurer-general for the ANC’s greater Johannesburg region and the city’s finance member of the mayoral committee.

Powell told the commission that Makhubo wrote various e-mails to EOH employee Patrick Makubedu requesting over R6 million in payments to be made to the ANC’s accounts in 2015 alone.

One of the e-mails Makhubo sent, which Powell read into record at the commission, stated: “ANC January 8 Anniversary national event, transport, accommodation and refreshments R250 000; total R490 000; grand total R6 180 000 and then what follows are the ANC banking accounts and following the banking details, there’s a note from Geoff Makhubo, your support is highly appreciated and we thank you in advance for your support and commitment towards strengthening our democracy.”

Powell said: “Chair, I do want to emphasise that some of the entities that we have investigated, such as Zyalack and Geoffrey Makhubo, were not part of our initial investigation but when the commission asked us, because we have access to EOH data and the server, we were able extract a lot of information that will be part of testimony today.

“But I do want to highlight that we haven’t had access to Makhubo’s data per se, but we do have details of what communications he had with EOH people and we have details of payments made to Makhubo through his company Molwewane.”

Reacting to the news, Mashaba, in a statement, says: “During my mayoralty in the City of Johannesburg, the multi-party coalition initiated a forensic investigation into the contract with EOH as the city’s IT provider.

“It was clear to us that this relationship contained irregularities, including alleged over-billing of the city. Bizarrely, when we investigated this matter, nearly all IT contracts appear to have been signed by the COO of the city when the city manager was away.

“Payments made by EOH subsidiaries to Molelwane between 2012 and 2014 totalled millions of rands. E-mails recovered reveal Makhubo further soliciting donations for the ANC in Johannesburg from EOH subsidiaries.”

According to Mashaba, during this time, EOH scored various tenders in the City of Johannesburg worth more than R1 billion, with a constant pattern of extensions and spending beyond the contracted amounts.

“It is clear that Makhubo’s real responsibilities for which he was allegedly handsomely remunerated, was to allegedly ensure EOH continued to be advantaged in tenders, to receive tender extensions and to continuously be paid more than the approved tender contract value.”

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