PUBLISHING DATES

In our previous edition, we published an article in which the Chief Operations Officer of the beleaguered Mpumalanga government parastatal, MEGA, told the media and the MEC for Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, that the parastatal did not issue any IT contract after the Premier had announced the merger of three of the province’s parastatals.

Elvis Rabohale, who was representing the perpetually absent Chief Executive Officer of Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency, Nosizwe Nokwe, at a press conference convened by the MEC Jabulani Mahlangu, denied that MEGA had issued an IT contract recently.

“There is currently no implementation of an IT system,” he said in the presence of a fully packed media briefing by the MEC earlier this month. He reiterated this information even after the MEC had warned that disciplinary action would be taken against officials whenever it can be discovered that they were lying.

Following his denial, Ziwaphi phoned an employee who confirmed that an IT company was busy at the parastatal.

“As I am talking to you, there are people on site,” he said.

Immediately after Rabohale’s daring denials were published in Ziwaphi and other media, angry employees approached Ziwaphi vowing “to expose the lies that the management of the parastatal have been telling the media,” said one employee.

Indeed, earlier this week, three employees brought a copy of minutes of a meeting held on 16th July 2009 between MEGA management and one of the IT companies that MEGA had appointed to install an IT system at the parastatal.

In terms of the minutes, titled – Minutes of Meeting between MEGA and ICT-Works in respect of Award of ICT Services Tender – MEGA awarded the tender to a Johannesburg based IT company, ICT Works on 9 July 2009, a month after Premier David Mabuza announced the merger of parastatals.

The tender was issued to two IT companies, ICT-Works and Dimension Data. Their assignment are, respectively, loosely stated as ICT Service Management and ‘Emergency Take-Over’ on one hand and Maintenance Services on the other.

According to the minutes, ICT Works was assigned by MEGA to meet with Dimension Data in Johannesburg. The purpose of the meeting between the two companies was not specified, however, sources within MEGA told Ziwaphi that the meeting between the two companies took place on 21 July 2009.

According to the minutes of the meeting, MEGA COO, Elvis Rabohale, was part of the meeting which was chaired by another MEGA kingpin, Jacky Mkhonto.

This latest Ziwaphi exposé, which has been brought to the attention of Mahlangu, is expected to elicit harsher action from the MEC, who is currently out of the country on government business. The Ziwaphi exposés on MEGA have until recently, been ignored by the previous political head, Craig Padayachee.

All eyes will be on Mahlangu when he holds his monthly media briefing in September.

MEGA has yet to respond to questions that Ziwaphi sent to them on the 29th July 2009 regarding the awarding of the IT tender.

MEGA is paying R15 000 a month to an image consultancy, and it is estimated that by the end of August 2009, the parastatal shall have paid R60 000 to answer questions from Ziwaphi.

Altogether, MEGA spends R180 000 per month for the services that the image consultancy renders to the parastatal.

Items that MEGA has been charged for, include greetings that the consultancy  made to unidentified journalists.