DA Leader Helen Zille must now fall on her own sword

Western Cape premier Helen Zille must make good on her promise to resign if any wrongdoing occurred in the award of a multi-million Rand corrupt communication contract and must go.
 
The ANC says Zille's cover is blown as it is now clear that she and the DA had political tentacles into the tender process equal to illegal insider trading. The premier is stripped naked and she is exposed for her cover-up thus far to save her own position. Was she open when she initially denied any wrongdoing or that any politician's presence in the tender process was unbecoming? 
 
The ANC says she must now immediately resign as she has admitted on a number of occasions to various mistakes, problems, a series of serious short-comings and not following best practice.
 
The latest revelation that her special advisor Ryan Coetzee was indeed from the beginning part of the concept against guidelines, vindicates the ANC's call for Coetzee suspension.
 
"Zille conceded to a group of civil society organisations that Coetzee's presence compromised the procurement process and that it set a bad precedent. This follows in the wake of her earlier denials. Now the question is, was Zille open when she denied wrongdoings or corruption to citizens of the province and South Africa?
 
"She has no choice, but to do the honourable thing by promptly resigning - as she has promised. Did she think the DA and her government could get away with such serious matters that compromises the supply chain management (SCM) and is tantamount to collusive relations that are conducive as breeding ground for corrupt activities?
 
"Now she admits mistakes... There is no mistake, it clearly was a transgression. There are no small transgressions in SCM. After the fact withdrawal of her advisor(s) does not make the transgression go away. She must publicly admit the wrongdoings, apologise and go," says ANC Western Cape MPL and Leader of the Opposition in the provincial legislature Lynne Brown. 
 
Some of the gross and serious transgressions:
 
The deal smacks of corruption in that TBWA in a declaration stated it had no contract with the state and in another official document that it had three contracts with the state. It should have been disqualified, but without probing the irregularity the contract was awarded to this company.
 
No politician may be involved in the tender process, yet at least three party political office bearers of the DA was present, amongst others chief strategist Ryan Coetzee, Gavin Davis and Nick Clelland-Stokes, who too describes himself as a politician.
 
As Coetzee is a special advisor reporting to the premier only and representing her, it is as if the premier was present in the tender process. This happened against clear public service guidelines for politically discretionary appointees.
 
It is the second time Coetzee got entangled in a communications contract as it is a repeat transgression of the tender processes in 2001 when TBWA\ Hunt Lascaris was also appointed by the provincial government. Coetzee resigned shortly before an urgent special meeting of the provincial tender board had to condone his blundering - after the fact.
 
Clelland-Stokes also had a relation with an employee of TBWA and was cautioned not to attend the adjudication process due to a conflict of interest. He disregarded the instruction of legal services and SCM to stay to the end. 
 
A company, Yardstick, was appointed without prior procurement or any competitive due process followed to assist with the adjudication process.
 
TBWA's appointment was bulldozed through just before the municipal elections earlier this year for a R1,5 million contract which was extended after the elections to all provincial government departments in a so-called transversal arrangement to the tune of R70 million in which TBWA could net fees of about R20 million!
 
Treasury should have been involved in that process from the very beginning. In a treasury report it is stated that the tender was restarted three times and that treasury was sidelined / ignored for four months while a series of serious mistakes were made. 
 
Zille still has to uncover the exact role of the third politico, Gavin Davis.
 
Brown says: "With a number of additional transgressions the process to appoint TBWA was flawed every step of the way.
 
"Clearly many wrongdoings occurred. Zille breached the trust of the people and failed the system she was elected to uphold. There is no way out for Zille's charade to put her position on the line. She must now follow through and vacate the office of the premier."    

Statement issued by Lynne Brown, ANC Leader of the Opposition: Western Cape legislature, September 18 2011

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