Kamogelo Olaitan
Police Minister Bheki Cele has been implicated in the multimillion-rand 2010 Fifa World Cup tender saga.
Suspended deputy police commissioner Francinah Vuma handed over evidence suggesting that Cele played a role in the accommodation scandal, City Press reports.
The 22-page dossier, dated 7 June 2010, bears Cele’s signature authorising R47-million of police funds to be spent to secure accommodation and meals for Saps officers who were deployed during the World Cup
Controversial Durban businessman Thoshan Panday’s Pendlebury’s Guest Suites and Resorts and Gold Coast Trading was allegedly selected to be appointed without a competitive tender process being followed.
“It is recommended that approval be granted to accept the quotations from the above-mentioned service providers for the provision of accommodation and meals for the SA Police Service members who will be deployed for the soccer World Cup 2010 in KwaZulu-Natal,” the document reads.
Panday, his mother, his wife and six other people were arrested in October 2020 in connection with the tender. They are out on bail facing charges of racketeering, fraud, corruption and money laundering.
Panday’s co-accused include former KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni and former police officers Navin Madhoe and Aswin Narainpershad.
In the document, Vuma said she was subpoenaed by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks).
“I am a competent witness in this investigation. The subpoena required me to provide the required documents before 20 June 2022, failing which I would have had to appear in the designated court by 24 June 2022 and explain why I was not cooperating with the investigation,” she said in the letter dated 6 July.
As a result, she wrote to the national head of the Hawks “and disclosed to him the investigation underway with which I was cooperating”.
In 2011 the then public protector Thuli Madonsela found that Cele acted unlawfully in the procurement of two building leases for new police headquarters valued at R1.6-billion.
Cele was suspended by Jacob Zuma, who was the president at the time, and later fired.
