Explosive report exposes corruption, incompetence – and bad taste – in refurbishment of capital’s municipal HQ.
AN EXPLOSIVE REPORT FINGERING for fraud and corruption was former Tshwane mayor Sputla Ramokgopa’s Chief of Staff shelved a year ago by the city’s previous municipal manager, Jason Ngobeni. Ngobeni resigned when the DA took over the administration of the capital after the August local government elections.
The forensic report is one of several that have been retrieved from oblivion by the DA administration. Compiled by Fundudzi Forensic Services, the 247-page document recommended that criminal charges be laid against Ernest Shozi and other high-ranking former officials, as well as the companies they appointed to refurbish the mayor’s official residence and the Pretoria City Hall. The then ANC-controlled council ignored the recommendation.
The City Hall project escalated from R12 million to R138m in less than a year and by the time the contractors were kicked off the site last year, R90m had already been paid out on the illconceived project. Left behind is a mess of rubble, and walls covered in psychedelic wallpaper and op-art tiles, “suitable only for a rent-by-the-hour hotel or a dominatrix torture room”.
It was not an upgrade it was a downgrade, says Councillor Randall Williams, the MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning in Tshwane. “I think it is an absolute national disgrace that something so dear to the city could be destroyed because of greed.”
Denne historien er fra January 2017-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra January 2017-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.
