Allan Robert Abbu, one of the accused in the R320 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) fraud case involving former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, refused to approve overtime for workers to finish the open tender evaluation process.

Instead, Abbu had approached service providers to send their bid quotations for the 2017 tender waste contracts.

This is according to a State witness when she testified in the Durban High Court on Thursday. 

However, the witness, who worked at the solid waste unit as one of the managers, failed to tell the court when she had requested overtime. 

Abbu, who said he had a plan when he refused to grant overtime, was the deputy head of the DSW unit. 

According to the State witness, who cannot be named, deputy heads were the ones authorised to approve overtime within eThekwini Municipality. 

Abbu, Gumede, and 20 others are charged with fraud, racketeering, corruption, money laundering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act, relating to this tender. The media is prohibited from naming State witnesses. 

According to what the court has learnt thus far, the DSW unit stated that it would not be able to complete the evaluation of open contract bids in time. In order to collect rubbish in eThekwini, it instead turned to experienced service providers.

In her evidence-in-chief, the witness said an open tender for waste collection was advertised in November 2017, and the closing date was December 13, 2017. She stated that a huge number of bids were received, and they immediately started evaluating the bids. 

“I requested help from the SCM (Supply Chain Management) to try and speed up the evaluation process. I got the assistance of six staff members,” she said. 

The witness further mentioned that more employees from solid waste and cleaning were brought in to help. She said that Abbu rejected her verbal request for overtime so they could work on the weekend of December 16. She added that from December 14 to 19, she was off duty.

However, during cross-examination by Abbu’s counsel, advocate Jay Naidoo SC, he asked her when she had asked for overtime. At first, she said she could not remember the exact date, adding that there was a farewell party on December 15, and she had attended it with Abbu. 

She insisted that she requested overtime at this party. However, she said the affidavit that she made during the investigations is the one that has the correct date of when she had asked for overtime. 

Naidoo read the affidavit, and it said she spoke to Abbu on December 14. However, she insisted that they spoke at the party, and as she was asked more questions, she would also insist she spoke to Abbu on December 14. 

“It is my instruction that he (Abbu) never spoke to you at the party. He says you never spoke to him about the overtime,” Naidoo said. 

The witness said she would not dispute Abbu’s claim.

“The request was made in a social gathering, and I did not write an email,” she replied. 

The trial continues.

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za

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