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- An investigation into corruption at EOH found that executive Jehan Mackay made repeated payments totaling hundreds of thousands of rand to “politically exposed persons.”
- Those who allegedly received money from Mackay are Zizi Kodwa, Reggie Nkabinde, and Jacob Zuma’s former assistant Siyabulela Sintwa.
- The payments have been forwarded to the Hawks for investigation.
Evidence presented to the Zondo Commission on behalf of EOH on Wednesday shows frequent payments from Jehan Mackay, then an executive at the tech giant, to at least three ANC officials.
The evidence was presented by Steven Powell, head of the forensic division at the ENS law firm, who had conducted an extensive investigation at EOH when his new management wanted to clean up.
Mackay and those implicated by his payments have not yet had a chance to contest the evidence.
ENS identified suspicious payments allegedly destined for Zizi Kodwa, the current Deputy Minister of State Security, between May 2015 and February 2016.
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At the time, Kodwa was the spokesperson for the ANC.
The bank statement summaries in the ENS presentation show eight payments totaling R375,000 apparently destined for Kodwa. The recipient is alternately given as “NG Kodwa” (his initials), “Zizi Kodwa” and “Zizi”.
This would not be the first time for Kodwa. In September, City Press reported that it had received payments totaling R180,000 between 2015 and 2017 from Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting, the company at the center of the Free State asbestos corruption prosecution.
Another serial recipient of Mackay payments appears to be Siyabulela Sintwa, Jacob Zuma’s former personal assistant. According to summarized bank statements, “Siyabulela Sintwa” and “SG Sintwa” (their initials) received R291,600 between September 2015 and January 2017.
Paid out
A “loan” of 500,000 rand was also paid in June 2017 to “MR Nkabinde”. This appears to be Mzwakhe Reginald Nkabinde, then general treasurer of the ANC Youth League.
Nkabinde was considered close to then-minister of water and sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, whose department was a key client for EOH.
Details of these payments have been given to the Hawks, ENS noted.
Powell told the commission that these payments were made from Mackay’s personal account, but appeared to have originated with the Mackay family business, Tactical Software Solutions (TSS).
“Very often, the payments seemed to follow a deposit of a similar or greater amount [into Mackay’s personal account] right before the transfer to the people I’ve listed and many of them were mentioned as TSS transfers, “Powell said.
TSS, the Mackay company that apparently funded these transfers to ANC officials, had previously sold a subsidiary called TSS Managed Services to EOH in 2011.
Subsequently, that subsidiary became the center of EOH’s public sector division, EOH Mthombo, the part of the company that was allegedly at the center of fraud and corruption at EOH. It was also this transaction that made Mackay an executive at EOH.
