A concerned individual recently visited the offices of the Standerton Advertiser with allegations of fraudulent municipal tender processes.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the Lekwa Municipality held a briefing for security companies at the Standerton Town Hall on April 1 at 10:00.
The closing date for applications to be appointed as a security company was April 30 at 12:00.
According to the man, Lekwa sold the document at R1 000 a piece.
He went on to say that no security company was appointed and another tender briefing took place on August 26 at 10:00.
The contract period was for 36 months and the price of a document was still R1 000.
According to the man, the attendees enquired about the money paid at the previous meeting and no reasonable explanation could allegedly be given.
“The people asked whether the money is going straight to the government,” the man said.
According to him, there was no answer to the question.
The closing date for submitting documents was September 10.
An allegation was made that certain companies paid between R30 000 and R40 000 to bribe municipal officials to get a tender.
The resident concluded with saying the Hawks should investigate the matter and corruption should be stopped.
He also said those involved with corruption need to be arrested and the appointed company should be liquidated.
According to him, the company that was appointed, began working on October 1.
The tender document however, indicated that 90 days will be given before a security company is appointed.
An often-repeated allegation was that big companies from Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are usually appointed.
The Standerton Advertiser contacted the communications manager of the municipality, Ms Thobeka Mtshiselwa, on Thursday, November 4, enquiring whether application documents were sold before the security company was appointed.
Ms Mtshiselwa furnished the cellphone number of the security company, but when calling on Thursday, November 11, the connection was cut off.
