POLITICS

Mafia Makhubo profiting from Johannesburg residents – Herman Mashaba

ActionSA leader says the HAWKS and NPA apparently know nothing about the corruption

Mafia Makhubo Profiting from Johannesburg Residents While HAWKS and NPA Know Nothing

25 November 2020

Johannesburg Mayor, Geoff Makhubo, has today been fingered by testimony given by an expert forensic investigator to the State Capture Commission in relation to alleged corruption between the City of Johannesburg and EOH.

During my Mayoralty in the City of Johannesburg, the multi-party coalition initiated a forensic investigation into the contract with EOH as the City’s IT provider. It was clear to us that this relationship contained irregularities, including alleged over-billing of the City. Bizarrely when we investigated this matter, nearly all IT contracts appear to have been signed by the COO of the City when the City Manager was away.

The expert forensic investigator confirmed the identification of correspondence between Geoff Makhubo and EOH, which included payments made to Molelwane Consulting, a company wholly owned by Makhubo and his mother. Molelwane Consulting is already notorious for its alleged profiting to the tune of R30 million for services rendered to Regiments Capital. These services were to allegedly manage the relationship for Regiments Capital with the City of Johannesburg, while Makhubo served as the MMC of Finance prior to 2016.

Payments made by EOH subsidiaries to Molelwane between 2012 and 2014, totalled millions of Rand. Emails recovered reveal Makhubo further soliciting donations for the ANC in Johannesburg from EOH subsidiaries.

During this time EOH scored various tenders in the City of Johannesburg worth more than R1 billion, with a constant pattern of extensions and spending beyond the contracted amounts. It is clear that Makhubo’s real responsibilities for which he was allegedly handsomely remunerated, was to allegedly ensure that EOH continued to be advantaged in tenders, to receive tender extensions and to continuously be paid more than the approved tender contract value.

When one considers the alleged role, Geoff Makhubo played with both Regiments Capital and EOH, and other suspected firms, he has become one of South Africa’s greatest political mafia figures. Allegedly in exchange for millions of rands in profit, Makhubo has been able to allegedly protect the interests of private companies to receive enormous sums of public money over many years.

Makhubo accomplished this, in part, while serving as the MMC of Finance under former Mayor Parks Tau. In this role Makhubo swore an oath to the residents of Johannesburg, but appears to have allegedly only committed himself to his personal enrichment. The residents of Johannesburg appear to have come a distant second in Makhubo’s priorities. This also clarifies Makhubo’s desperation with motions of no confidence in the City under my Mayoralty, because numerous forensic investigations had been instituted into the companies he was expected to protect.

It is emerging that Geoff Makhubo is a disgrace to the residents of Johannesburg and one of the alleged key figures in state capture in South Africa. Having established the role he has allegedly played with Regiments Capital and EOH, the question emerges as to which other companies Makhubo has allegedly protected that are not under the State Capture Commission’s terms of reference.

Having already announced steps to initiate private prosecution proceedings against Geoff Makhubo, ActionSA has been shocked to learn that both the NPA and the HAWKS have no record of the criminal case I laid in December 2018.

ActionSA is committed to taking this matter to the highest courts of our country to ensure that law enforcement agencies and the NPA are held accountable and that Makhubo sees his day in court for his abuse of the people of Johannesburg.

Until that day, ActionSA calls upon every Councillor in the City of Johannesburg to support a motion of no confidence. Any Councillor who failed to do so, including those who supported Makhubo’s budget earlier this year, will be culpable of the continued looting of Johannesburg.

Issued by Lerato M-Ngobeni, National Spokesperson of ActionSA, 25 November 2020