{"id":10250,"date":"2019-12-02T22:10:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T22:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/?post_type=stories&p=10250"},"modified":"2024-09-20T18:20:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:20:54","slug":"geoff-makhubo-joburgs-tainted-mayor-in-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/geoff-makhubo-joburgs-tainted-mayor-in-waiting\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff Makhubo: Joburg\u2019s tainted mayor-in-waiting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geoff Makhubo will find out on Wednesday if he will finally become Johannesburg\u2019s new mayor, a job he has eyed since before the 2016 local government elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makhubo, who is the chair of the Greater Johannesburg region of the ANC, is the frontrunner for the job; and with the ANC holding 121 seats, the party needs 15 additional votes at most to confirm his position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His ambition of securing the mayor\u2019s office was nearly derailed twice in the past week: first by the ANC\u2019s provincial executive committee, which reportedly rejected Makhubo\u2019s name; and then by the EFF, who wanted the ANC to select another candidate in exchange for their members\u2019 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like this story? Be an amaB Supporter<\/a> <\/span>to help us do more. Sign up for our newsletter<\/a><\/span> to get more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The election of the new mayor was supposed to take place on Thursday last week but was delayed because of confusion about what constitutes a majority in light of one of the seats, previously held by the ANC, being vacant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Makhubo is a divisive figure. Although popular among ANC branches, there are serious questions about an estimated R30-million that his company received from Regiments Capital, a firm deeply implicated in state capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AmaBhungane exposed the payments<\/a> last year. We detailed how Makhubo\u2019s firm, Molelwane Consulting, was given a 10% cut of a controversial contract Regiments received to manage the city\u2019s sinking fund, a large kitty used to provide for future liabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Molelwane\u2019s \u2013 and thus Makhubo\u2019s \u2013 deliverables was to \u201cmaintain \u2026 strategic relationships\u201d with the City of Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time the contract was signed, Makhubo held no official position in the ANC or the city. But when Makhubo was elected \u2013 first as ANC regional treasurer and then the city\u2019s member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance \u2013 a serious conflict of interest arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2011, Makhubo\u2019s company was receiving a 10% cut of a contract that he, as MMC for finance, was tasked with overseeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AmaBhungane estimated that between 2006 and 2015, Molelwane Consulting received R30 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Makhubo denied \u201cany suggestion of impropriety or corruption in the relationship between Molelwane and Regiments\u201d and claimed that he had resigned from Molelwane when he was appointed as MMC for finance in order \u201cto deal with real or potential conflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Makhubo\u2019s 8-page response and much of the evidence is available from the amaBhungane Evidence Folder<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But records from the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) show that Makhubo did not resign until October 2019. Then, the only remaining member of the close corporation was Makhubo\u2019s mother, who assumed formal ownership of the two-thirds that he had held up to that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also continued to declare his interest in Molelwane in the city\u2019s register of members interests until 2018-19 \u2013 while failing to disclose that Molelwane was directly benefitting from one of the city\u2019s most lucrative but controversial contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is clear that Makhubo was conflicted and must have benefited greatly, the more difficult question is whether he engaged in a quid pro quo<\/em> with Regiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amongst the evidence amaBhungane uncovered was a document described as a \u201cCoJ cheat sheet\u201d prepared by Regiments and ostensibly given to Makhubo in November 2010, which included a shopping list of decisions that Regiments wanted the ANC-controlled municipality to execute for the firm\u2019s financial benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makhubo, who was regional treasurer of the ANC at the time, denied any knowledge of the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city, under former mayor Herman Mashaba, cancelled Regiments\u2019 sinking fund contract last year and instituted several investigations into Regiments deals with the city while it was under ANC control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the sinking fund contract and Molelwane\u2019s 10% cut, amaBhungane understands that the city is also investigating how a Regiments-led consortium acquired the rights to develop the land above the Sandton Gautrain station, as well as several other financial deals \u2013 primarily loans and interest-rate swops \u2013 executed by Regiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of these deals has the potential to implicate senior members of the current and former ANC administration, and questions now arise about whether the city, if it returns to ANC rule, will have any appetite to continue these investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday last week, Makhubo tweeted that the ANC\u2019s integrity commission had cleared him of any wrongdoing in relation to the Molelwane payments. The basis for its apparent decision is not known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these are not the only investigations that are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mashaba opened a criminal case against Makhubo last year relating to the Molelwane payments. The Hawks were investigating but the status is unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two weeks ago, the National Prosecuting Authority\u2019s new Investigating Directorate, led by Hermione Cronje, obtained a court order to freeze assets belonging to three current and former Regiments\u2019 directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NPA has since confirmed that several terabytes of data \u2013 comprising Regiments\u2019 emails, documents and cellphone records \u2013 have also been handed over to the State Capture Commission and the NPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the NPA\u2019s asset freeze is focused on the R1-billion in consulting contracts that Regiments received from Transnet, the records are also likely to contain substantial information about Regiments\u2019 deals with the City of Johannesburg and its relationship with the ANC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, another amaBhungane investigation<\/a> showed how Regiments ploughed money into the regional structures of the ANC at Makhubo\u2019s request; attempted to cut Makhubo and other ANC members into a deal with Vox Telecom; and engaged political facilitators and fixers in numerous pay-for-play deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That a decade of these deals is now open to scrutiny by the State Capture Commission and Cronje\u2019s team at the NPA may just give some within the ANC a sleepless night, before tomorrow\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigators \u2014 from the city and beyond \u2014 are sniffing at \u201ccity capture\u201d deals where the ANC regional boss may be implicated. If he becomes mayor, what will come of those investigations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[149,122,266,73],"class_list":["post-10250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-anc","tag-city-of-joburg","tag-geoff-makhubo","tag-regiments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30284,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions\/30284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}