{"id":10687,"date":"2020-01-31T03:59:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T03:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/?post_type=stories&p=10687"},"modified":"2024-09-20T17:19:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:19:27","slug":"at-community-work-programme-family-and-staff-eat-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/at-community-work-programme-family-and-staff-eat-first\/","title":{"rendered":"At Community Work Programme, family and staff eat first"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, amaBhungane revealed the names of companies benefitting from the R4-billion-a-year Community Work Programme. Then the Daily Dispatch took us to the Eastern Cape where participants were threatened if they spoke out. Today we dig into allegations that an implementing agent in the Eastern Cape is dishing out contracts to friends, family and staff while local businesses miss out.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Alfred Muzwakhe Sigudhla is a larger than life character.<\/p>\n

Before shutting down his Facebook profile, he liked to post photos of his collection of cars, bottles of Mo\u00ebt & Chandon and parties with local celebrities.<\/p>\n

But if you are a journalist looking to ask him questions, the Mpumalanga businessman is nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Sigudhla is the executive director of Southern African Youth Movement (SAYM), a non-profit organisation.<\/p>\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

In April 2018, the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) appointed SAYM to run a chunk of the Community Works Programme (CWP) in the Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n

The CWP provides \u201cuseful work\u201d to impoverished communities; how that is defined is up to community members but includes food gardens, patching potholes, staffing cr\u00e8ches or providing early childhood development training.<\/p>\n

In exchange, the 259\u00a0000 participants across the country receive two days of work a week earning just R97.50 per day.<\/p>\n

With a budget of R689-million this year, the Eastern Cape has the largest programme in the country.<\/p>\n

Though funded by Cogta, the CWP is run by \u201cimplementing agents\u201d, which are paid a fee to coordinate the programme on government\u2019s behalf and procure tools, materials, protective clothing and training.<\/p>\n

In the Eastern Cape, SAYM is one of two implementing agents. As such, it was supposed to ensure that contracts for these items were awarded in a way that was \u201cfair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet four weeks before issuing a major tender for protective clothing, Sigudhla, the SAYM executive director, set up a factory in Pretoria to manufacture t-shirts, overalls and hats to the specifications that the tender would require.<\/p>\n

Then, a company with links to SAYM not only won the contract, but appears to have sourced at least some of its protective clothing from the factory that Sigudhla had timeously set up.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile local businesses \u2013 sewing co-operatives and other manufacturers in the Eastern Cape \u2013 have been left wondering what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re robbing the Eastern Cape,\u201d an unsuccessful bidder said.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWe don\u2019t go [to] do jobs in Joburg, but the Eastern Cape jobs are given to guys in Joburg. And this is not a specialist job, it\u2019s an easy thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAYM agreed to an interview last year, then sent a letter insisting that SAYM\u2019s tender processes were free and fair.<\/p>\n

\u201c[W]e have never given friends, staff members or families even though our policy doesn\u2019t exclude staff members to render services to organisations though its own conflict of interest policy [sic],\u201d Sigudhla\u2019s office manager, Jika Chabwera, wrote.<\/p>\n

Chabwera offered to prepare us a file of evidence for our upcoming interview, but then the interview was postponed, and eventually SAYM stopped taking our calls and responding to our emails.<\/p>\n

When we approached Cogta with our allegations in August last year, SAYM sent a lawyer\u2019s letter threatening to sue us if we did not withdraw our questions and apologise.<\/p>\n

We refused.<\/p>\n

The cousin\u2019s contract<\/h5>\n

Last year, amaBhungane filed a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) request for details of every contract that implementing agents had awarded for tools, materials and the like. Cogta disclosed most of the records.<\/p>\n

We were trying to established whether an allegation from a former SAYM employee, Lucas Loate, was true: that SAYM had awarded CWP contracts to companies run by its own employees.<\/p>\n

Loate worked for SAYM for 18 months as a programme manager in the Eastern Cape but fell out with his employer and was effectively fired in April last year.<\/p>\n

During a subsequent Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) hearing, Loate claimed that he was sidelined after questioning, amongst other things, why a company run by SAYM manager Nelisiwe Mahlangu had been appointed to provide agricultural training at 11 CWP sites in the province.<\/p>\n

Loate said he became concerned when, in December 2018, he received a list of newly-appointed training providers for the CWP. One of the companies listed Mahlangu as its contact person.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I\u2019m seeing the list, Nelisiwe was still very much \u2026 part and parcel of SAYM; she was a programme manager,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Loate said he raised his concerns with Sigudhla. After this, Loate says, he was sidelined from all CWP work.<\/p>\n

\u201c[A] new reporting system was put in place so that all the reports can bypass me\u2026 Eventually my position held no power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In response, SAYM argued that Loate was moved into a new role due to poor performance, and was dismissed after his 3-month probation in this new role. The CCMA ruled in Loate\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

What SAYM did not dispute and what Cogta records confirm is that Professional Development and Training Institute (known as Prodit), where Mahlangu was the sole registered director, received a R1.9-million contract from SAYM to provide CWP training.<\/p>\n

Various sources allege that Mahlangu is not only an SAYM employee, but also Sigudhla\u2019s cousin. She and Sigudhla are also co-directors of a parallel company called SA Youth Movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo tell that person who sent you that they don\u2019t have to hide behind your skirt!\u201d Mahlangu shouted when we called her for comment. \u201cIf there\u2019s something fraudulent, it is not for you to write stories about, it for Cogta to institute an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, they have now.<\/p>\n

AmaBhungane has established that after receiving our questions in August last year, Cogta appointed MNS Attorneys to conduct a forensic investigation into, amongst other things, \u201cissues relating to irregular appointment of suppliers by Implementing Agents such as SAYM\u201d.<\/p>\n

When we spoke to Mahlangu she claimed she had resigned from SAYM in 2016 and now worked for SAYM as a consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven that company [Prodit] I took over as a consultant. Because I was interested in training,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Records show that Mahlangu resigned as Prodit\u2019s sole director in April 2019. Prodit\u2019s new director, Phumzile Masupyoe, received our questions sent via WhatsApp but offered no response.<\/p>\n

Masupyoe, one source alleges, is Mahlangu\u2019s sister. Her LinkedIn profile indicates that during 2019 \u2013 the year when Prodit was conducting agricultural training in the Eastern Cape \u2013 she was studying towards a degree at the University of Pretoria. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the course of Loate\u2019s CCMA hearing, SAYM claimed that Prodit was part of an incubation programme. This may be consistent with what Prodit\u2019s original owner told us, namely that he sold the company to SAYM.<\/p>\n

If so, it may be good news for Mahlangu but not for SAYM which would then be profiting from a contract it was supposed to award freely and fairly.<\/p>\n

10 companies, R13.6-million<\/h5>\n

In fact, in Cogta\u2019s records we found at least 10 contracts worth R13.6-million that were awarded to companies run by SAYM staff, their business partners and apparent members of Sigudhla\u2019s family. These include:<\/p>\n