The provincial government leader allegedly received R185 000 from the spoils of the tender
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane, according to a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) information note, received R185 000 from the R27 million vehicles tender that ANC senior member Pule Mabe is facing fraud charges.
Chiloane has denied any involvement in the matter or that he is being investigated.
The NPA note, which the Mail & Guardian has seen, stated that Chiloane was expected to be the ninth accused in the combined 16 counts of fraud, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act that Mabe and six others were charged with on 16 October.
The MEC’s alleged crimes, the detailed state document added, stem from his time as the City of Ekurhuleni’s infrastructure and transformation cluster coordinator — a position he apparently resigned from in 2017.
The city was one of the beneficiaries of the March 2017 contract from the Gauteng agriculture and rural development department to supply it with 200 waste-management three-wheel vehicles to boost small and medium business participation in the sector, with Ekurhuleni ordering 70 in July 2017.
Last Wednesday, Mabe, his wife Mmatlhekelo Mabe, Loyiso Mkwana, the agriculture and rural development department’s chief director, Thandeka Mbassa, who was the departmental head from March 2016 to August 2018, Matilda Gasela, who succeeded Mbassa before going on pension this year, and Abdullah Ismail, the department’s chief financial officer from October 2014 to March 2020, made their first appearances in the Johannesburg specialised commercial crimes court.
Also on Wednesday, the NPA added that Tinyiko Mahuntsi, the sixth accused, was the director of Enviro Mobi when it was awarded the tender.
However, the state claims that Pule Mabe maintained signing powers of Enviro Mobi’s First National Bank account after he had resigned as a director in August 2014, with Mahuntsi only receiving co-control of the account in July 2016.
It was from this account that Mabe allegedly doled out more than R15 million to his wife, family members and two of his companies, Rivalox and Rivalox Properties.
The internal NPA document claimed that it was from Rivalox Properties, which it stated Mabe was the sole director of, where the education MEC received the alleged R185 000.
“The payments were made in 10 instalments. The payments were made into his [Chiloane’s] personal bank account held at First National Bank,” the internal note read.
However, the MEC denied that he was being investigated, saying he had “never received any funds from Mr Mabe at all”, and adding that he was “just a youth coordinator” in Ekurhuleni’s mayoral office.
He added that he was not involved in the purchase of the 70 waste-management vehicles the city procured from Enviro Mobi.
“My advice; ask the political leaders of the time — they can give you answers. As for me, I don’t know anything,” Chiloane stressed.
“No one called me and I am certain [that] I am not [being] investigated. Secondly, I [have] never received any money ever from Mr Mabe in my entire life,” he added.
The NPA did not respond to detailed questions the M&G sent related to information contained in its internal documents, including the dates and figures of when and how Chiloane allegedly received the funds.
However, the prosecuting authority’s Gauteng spokesperson, Phindi Mjonondwane, said: “The case docket presented to the NPA was in respect of all accused that are before [the] court. The NPA does not investigate nor arrest.”
Mabe and his co-accused, during their first appearance, also stressed their innocence and that they would plead not guilty, with the ANC’s former national spokesperson calling the charges against him “meritless and without substance”.
“I will not be found guilty of any charges preferred against me. I did nothing wrong and cannot conceive of any evidence that can be brought against me,” he asserted.
The main contention of the NPA’s case, as detailed in its charge sheet, is the roughly R27.5 million prepayments the provincial department made to Enviro Mobi — payments that the accused did not dispute — for what the state claimed was a breach of contract and money for work not done.
The charge sheet added that, in March 2017, Enviro Mobi submitted its first invoice a day after the tender was awarded for “fleet acquisition” for more than R16.4 million, invoicing two more times in September and November of the same year for a combined nearly R11 million.
The NPA claims the invoices were “not accompanied by any supporting documentation detailing the completion, review, [or] approval of each deliverable or any delivery notes”.
All accused were released on R30 000 bail each and will return to court next March.