KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has asked for more time to deal with the allegations of corruption levelled against two of his cabinet MECs.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday while addressing the public at a crime imbizo in Umlazi, south of Durban, the Premier said he was still seized with the matter which he described as complex, urging the public to give him more time to follow through.

“It’s a complicated matter I am still dealing with. I have realised that there are other elements linked to this matter which need me to follow further up so I am asking for time and at the appropriate time I will inform the public,” said Ntuli.

Last month allegations of  tender rigging surfaced in a school feeding scheme which has tainted Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka. The MEC was accused of having influenced the appointment of his relatives and comrades’ companies-an allegation which he denied.

Another allegation also emerged that Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Mngadi’s family had benefited from a tender in the Agriculture department, where she was once the chair of the portfolio committee. 

When the scandals broke out three weeks ago, Ntuli announced that he had requested responses from the affected MECs, vowing to take appropriate action after studying their responses. The following week he confirmed receiving the responses.

While the Premier was still analysing the MECs’ responses, the DA in the province revealed that a company allegedly belonging to the wife of the Employment and Labour Deputy Minister, Jomo Sibiya, was also suspiciously awarded a tender to supply food items to schools.

Sibiya has not responded to the claims.

In a statement issued by the party’s spokesperson on Education in the province, Sakhile Mngadi, the party expressed alarm over new revelations allegedly linking Deputy Minister Sibiya to companies flagged as beneficiaries in the unfolding National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) corruption scandal.

He said the rot in this process runs deep, and his party was demanding the dissolution and reconstitution of the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC), with all current members recused and investigated for possible collusion. The party demanded a full-scale forensic audit led jointly by KZN’s Office of the Premier and Treasury.

In their responses, the MECs acknowledged that the companies in question were registered by them but they had resigned from them, leaving them to their families. They also denied having influenced the bid adjudicating committees to manipulate the tenders in favour of their families’ companies.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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