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KwaZulu-Natal Prime Minister Sihle Zikalala speaking at a Covid-19 press conference.
PHOTO: Supplied by the KZN government
- The KwaZulu-Natal government has appointed the directors and owners of companies that have been awarded contracts to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
- The list includes directors of electricity, media and cleaning companies paid with R2.1 billion spent.
- Around R17 million was spent on companies for which no details are available, and four companies were also not in their registered supplier database.
The KwaZulu-Natal government paid R17 million of its total R2.1 billion spending on Covid-19 to companies for which it has no details, Prime Minister Sihle Zikalala said on Thursday.
This came about when the provincial government released its report on the owners and directors it paid around R2.1 billion during the Covid-19 pandemic through August 31.
He also does not yet have the ownership details of the companies that did business with the municipalities due to different IT systems, but said this is a work in progress.
Zikalala said the goal of publishing the report was not to judge, but to understand how the money was spent and who benefited, particularly in light of the transformation goals.
It was also discovered that four companies that received R3 878 720 in total were not in their database. One, called Bellanova, received R3.8 million, Contichem Stanger got R2 520, a Dr Mohamed R720 and Dis-Chem R480.
Zikalala said they would be further investigated and it was speculated that the Dis-Chem payment, for example, could have been a petty cash expense.
During this time, the media, including SABC, Independent Media and Ilanga, were also paid.
A question about a company called PLZ projects with “Zulu Princess Zinhle” listed as the owner seemed to ruffle the feathers at the press conference, and the briefing was quickly concluded.
An analysis of contract recipients during Covid-19 also gave insight into the races and genders of the people who got the job.
- Black R810m (38.43%);
- 622 million Indians (29.5%);
- Companies owned by others (subsidiaries) R568m (26%);
- White R37.9m (1.8%);
- Mixed stake 31.3 million rand (1.49%);
- No details R17m (0.84%);
- R10m colored (0.51%);
- Asian 9.71 million (0.46%)
Companies in which women had a participation of 50% or more obtained contracts worth R687 411 880, which represents 33% of the total expenditure.
Businesses where youth owned 50% or more of the business won deals worth R310 786 509, representing 15% of total spending.
Four companies, named Aramiya (R82 380), Khanyisile Agency (R1.7 million) and Ntandoyenkosi Holdings (R67 448), were registered at the end of March, when the first cases of Covid-19 and the need for essential items occurred. evident.
When pressed for further comment on some of the contracts awarded, the press conference ended.
Read the full report here.
Zikalala reiterated that the State Security Agency (SSA) and the South African Tax Service (SARS) would help with the separate matter of lifestyle audits of government officials.
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