Former DAFF DG, CFO face fraud charges over irregular R65m tender

THE former Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) director-general (DG) and the department’s former chief financial officer (CFO) are in hot water, facing charges of fraud regarding an alleged irregular tender apparently worth R65 million.

Lawyers for former DG Michael Mlengana and former CFO Jacob Hlatshwayo made a brief appearance on August 22 at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Cape Town on their behalf. The matter was postponed to October.

The exact charges facing the two accused remain sketchy, apparently because the charge sheet has yet to be finalised. Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk could only confirm that the Commercial Crimes Investigation Unit was investigating a fraud case and that “two suspects were charged, and the case is running in court”.

Mlengana and Hlatshwayo were arrested and charged with fraud at Cape Town Central police station a few months ago, but were later released with a warning.

It is believed that the charges are related to a tender that was awarded for the fencing of the Kalk Bay and Hout Bay harbours in Cape Town, which, through years of neglect, had become hubs of criminal activity and vulnerable to poaching.

Mlengana confirmed to Independent Media’s investigations unit that he and Hlatshwayo were facing charges and said he had been charged, “for nearly defrauding the department”. He said he flew from Johannesburg to attend the case on August 22 for his third appearance, only to be told by his lawyer that the case was not yet ready for prosecution.

“They have not finalised the docket, so they are just fishing around. I was going (to appear in court) but the lawyers told me that the docket is not ready. They have not finalised it for the fourth time,” Mlengana said, adding that he had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mlengana, who joined DAFF as DG in 2016, said he viewed the charge against him as a counter-attack by some of his former colleagues, who he had previously charged in connection with “abalone and processes or fruitless and wasteful expenditure and all those types of things that I found wrong (when he joined the department)”.

Attorney Sandile Xulashe, who appeared in court on behalf of Hlatshwayo, declined to reveal exactly why the matter was postponed.

“The matter was postponed … for the reasons that were presented in court, which I am not willing to divulge.”

The DAFF has, for years, been engulfed by suspicions around illicit abalone trade, which has always been linked to senior public servants and individuals in the private sector.

Among the ills and alleged misdeeds that tainted the department’s reputation was a tender that was awarded to a company called Willjarro to market and sell 90 tons of confiscated abalone worth about R225m at the time. This tender was cancelled after the disappearance of R7 million worth of the abalone while it was in Willjarro’s possession.

The controversial issue surrounding abalone has oft been in the media, where it was previously reported that while Mlengana was still the DG in 2018, he charged his deputy, Siphokazi Ndudane, and former CFO for the fisheries section of the department, Nazima Parker, in connection with the theft of three tons of abalone from the department’s storage facility in Gansbaai.

When Mlengana left the department in July 2020, he left many in the fishing industry with several unanswered questions about his sudden departure.

The anti-poaching office in Gansbaai, Western Cape, in the past, was reportedly used by certain DAFF officials as a hub for poaching activities, which led to the arrest of several officials in 2019.

Mlengana and Hlatshwayo’s arrests followed an investigation conducted by attorney Barnabus Xulu of B Xulu and Partners into the fencing tender. Xulu’s report reveals that the tender was awarded after deviation from the prescribed procurement process.

“There was no audit trail on how the suppliers were invited to submit quotations and (how they) were selected. And that no list of suppliers was provided by the data administrator, to source the quotes for the services in need. Only two quotations were received from the prospective service providers contrary to the three-­quote system as prescribed by National Treasury,” reads Xulu’s report.

Xulu, who said he had not seen the charge sheet, said the officials from the department had, after inspection of the harbours in question, requested R65m for the fence and installation of CCTV cameras to deal with the problem of vagrants.

“They started issuing invoices, but they only went there to put up a container, which was apparently empty. The container was just to create an impression that there was construction taking place,” Xulu said.

He said the R65m was never paid “because of the intervention of the DG”.

Xulu said he became involved in the investigation after being approached, when then-minister Senzeni Zokwana was frustrated by revelations of corruption within the department.