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By Loyiso Sidimba 
5h ago
Johannesburg – A subsidiary of the country’s largest technology group, EOH Holdings, funded the ANC in Johannesburg just as the city of Johannesburg had a tender to upgrade its IT infrastructure, the Zondo Commission heard in State Capture on Wednesday.
ENS Forensics Managing Director Steven Powell told the commission that there were many requests for donations at the time the tender was awarded. He said the 2016 tender to upgrade the city’s SAP system was worth R404 million, including value added tax.
“It’s just unheard of, it’s just wrong,” Powell said.
He told the chairman of the commission, Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, that the subsidiary, EOH Mthombo, received information that the city of Johannesburg was about to announce the SAP upgrade tender.
According to Powell, the City of Johannesburg’s EOH revenue was R250 million a year and the company had a complete technical and political strategy for the contract.
He said part of the political strategy was to meet with the “people” of former mayor Parks Tau.
Tau is now deputy minister for cooperative governance and traditional affairs and was mayor of Johannesburg until 2016.
According to Powell, in October 2014, the ANC in Johannesburg received R1.5m from EOH ahead of its regional conference.
Powell said there were regular requests for donations from the current Johannesburg mayor and ANC regional chairman Geoff Makhubo, who was regional treasurer at the time.
He said the tenders were awarded in exchange for donations.
Makhubo’s company, Molelwane Consulting, also received donations from EOH and no formal bidding process took place before the bids were awarded to EOH, according to Powell.
The ANC Tshwane region also requested EOH help to pay its service providers a week before their conference in September 2014.
Powell testified that EOH reported what ENS Forensics found during its investigation of the Hawks in October 2019 in terms of the Corrupt Activities Prevention and Combat Act.
Political Bureau
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