National Treasury blacklists ‘construction mafia’
Cape Town - The National Treasury has blacklisted two construction companies accused of colluding with Nicole Johnson, the wife of alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield, while bidding for municipal tenders.
The axe has fallen on ZSM Developers based in Cape Town, as well as Boon Group, based in Gauteng.
This, as the Treasury placed them on the list of restricted suppliers for a period of five years. During this time, they will not be able to bid for any government tenders.
The sanction comes amid a R1 billion tender fraud investigation into links between government officials and underworld figures, which has led to the arrest of the directors of these companies.
They are set to go on trial alongside Stanfield and former DA mayco member for housing, Malusi Booi.
In an exclusive interview with the Cape Argus earlier this year, City of Cape Town manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo, revealed how the municipality hired a handwriting expert to assess the tender applications received amid suspicions that the companies were colluding with Johnson’s construction company when making bids.
Glomix CC, which is owned by Johnson, was dealt a major blow last year when Mbandazayo blacklisted 12 companies owned or associated with Johnson and her husband.
The company was also later blacklisted by the Treasury following Mbandazayo’s investigation.
Mbandazayo said after the murder of City staffer Wendy Kloppers at a housing site in Delft, he uncovered a web of links between alleged underworld figures, contractors and City staff.
While undertaking the mammoth investigation, he came across three tender applications by Glomix CC and the two companies for the same housing project but became suspicious when he discovered the same handwriting on all three applications, despite each company listing different individuals as their directors.
As part of the investigation, a handwriting expert was brought in to ascertain if the paperwork was indeed completed by the same person, showing that there was collusion with Johnson to ensure the underworld would have control over the housing site regardless of who won the tender.
In the report given to the Cape Argus, the expert outlined various similarities between the three applications.
The findings show that the person who completed all three tender applications used the same size and style of writing, the exact linear spaces between words and the same use of grammar.
Shockingly, it was also found that all three applications had the signature of the same police officer at Bishop Lavis Police Station, which had certified the ID documents of all the directors. In one of the applications, it was found that one of the directors’ signature was also signed fraudulently when compared to the signature on her ID card.
Several months later, Abdul Kader Davids, the sole director of ZSM Developers, and Mohammed Amod of Boon Group, were arrested alongside Stanfield, Johnson and Booi in the mammoth underworld case.
Davids was later shot and killed in Beacon Valley after he was released on R250000 bail.
Documents in the possession of the Cape Argus show that Johnson’s mother, Barbara, signed as a witness on his tender application forms.
In a letter from the Treasury to Mbandazayo, it indicated it was satisfied that the municipality had fulfilled all the requirements to motivate the decision to blacklist the companies in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Supply Chain Management Policy.