Almost three years after the City launched a forensic investigation into alleged housing tender irregularities costing millions of rand, the public and council members are being kept in the dark about its findings.
Calls for the release of the report, whose probe involved public funds, have grown with voices from opposition political parties and crime activists following the raid on the City's housing boss, Malusi Booi, this week.
Although police would not divulge details on what the raid was linked to, some insiders described it as “the tip of the iceberg”.
“There’s more that will unravel. The parrots are starting to speak. We might also see arrests in the next few weeks or months,” said one who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another called for justice as “a lot of money has been stolen from the poor”, making reference to the poor conditions in some of the municipal-owned housing units and the huge backlog in the provision of houses.
The leader of the Cape Coloured Congress (CCC), Fadiel Adams, consistently challenged Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and speaker Felicity Purchase to make the findings of the probe public in line with transparency and good governance and said he was “shut down” and told that there were no sinister findings.
“Let the leaders prove that there was no evidence of fraud. Let them table the report in council and publish it.”
Former mayor Dan Plato ordered a probe after allegations of fraud, breaches and irregularities regarding term tender T243Q – awarded to Ilitha Painters and Decorators t/a The Construction Company (TCC), in 2018 – were brought to his attention by crime activist Hanif Loonat in 2020.
At the time he alleged that prices of building materials were inflated by up to 10 times and that City officials approved and paid for costs outside of what was allowed.
Loonat also opened a case against the company in 2020.
However, the City still remains cagey about the outcome of the probe and would not be drawn on its findings.
When asked in 2021 spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said the probe had been concluded and the report was with municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo “for his attention”.
In 2022 he said the findings were being studied and Labour Relations was being consulted on the findings.
Yesterday, he would not respond to the question related to the report.
“The report is being kept top secret and there have been legal moves to gag me,” added Adams.
In November 2022, directors of TCC, including Asif Khan and two employees of the City, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on fraud charges related to Loonat’s case.
The company, which was a service provider to the City, was also charged along with the other eight accused.
The State alleged that employees of the company, including the directors, supplied false invoices to the City and allegedly misrepresented some of the work they charged for as being completed.
Two City employees, Adam Majiet and Alistair Stanbul Majiet, allegedly allowed the invoices to be authorised even though they knew the work was not completed.
The accused are expected to appear again in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court on April 14.
The case was also expected to link the dots to the previous court appearance of Khan, the City's head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Reynold Talmakkies, and former policeman Paul Scheepers.
The three appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court in August 2022 on fraud charges.
They allegedly attempted to bribe witnesses with millions of rand in a housing case.
One of the suspects had allegedly turned State witness.