AfriForum application stops payment of R4.25 million to controversial businessman

The Northern Cape High Court awarded an interim order to AfriForum yesterday which stopped payment of R4.25 million by the Ga-Segonyana Municipality to controversial businessman Wandile Bozwana. The order was granted pending an application to be lodged by AfriForum to stop the payment altogether.

AfriForum submitted an urgent application after it came to light that an agreement had been reached on 16 September 2013 between the Municipal Manager, Mr Edward Ntefang, and Mr Bozwana for the payment of R4.25 million.AfriForum believes that Mr Ntefang was not authorized to enter into the agreement, as the Municipal Finance Management Act (Act 57 of 2003) stipulates that only a mayor may authorize payments not provided for in the budget of the relevant municipality.

The payment would have been compensation for a transaction entered into in 2007 between the Municipality and a businessperson, which went awry. The High Court found in 2007 that the correct procedure was not followed to dispose of the land, and development was stopped summarily.

"TEB Properties and its Director, Mr Bozwana, are well-known for purchases and tenders that go awry, and subsequent claims for compensation. This seems to be his modus operandi," says Wesley Martin, Organiser for AfriForum in the Northern Cape. In August 2013 an amount of R7.2 million was claimed from the Tsantsabane Municipality in Postmasburg in similar fashion. Legal representatives for TEB Properties said yesterday that Mr Bozwana needed the money urgently.

The case will be heard on 5 December.

Statement issued by Wesley Martin, Organiser AfriForum Northern Cape, October 1 2013

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