A decision to market Stellenbosch to international football teams, for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, has landed two men, a former mayor and a former municipal manager, in trouble.
Their mistake was to deviate from the municipality’s supply-chain management policy, it is alleged.
Former mayor, Patrick Mxolisi Swartz, 65, and former municipal manager, Ian Bruce Roland Kenned, 46, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Bellville, Cape Town, on Tuesday.
With them in the dock was Vusumzi Aaron Kama, 50, who was appointed by them as the co-ordinator for the project – again, allegedly, ignoring the requirements of the municipality’s Supply-chain Management Policy.
They appeared before magistrate Constance Nziweni, who postponed the matter to November 7.
According to the charge sheet, the Stellenbosch Municipality, in conjunction with the Stellenbosch University, decided to market Stellenbosch to international soccer teams, after the announcement in the year 2007 of South Africa as the successful bidder to host the world cup.
However, the very next year saw a change in the political leadership of the municipality, which resulted in a change in the municipal manager and mayor.
In accordance with the change, Swartz became the new mayor, and Kenned the new manager.
The two new leaders decided to continue with the marketing project, and appointed co-ordinator Kama – ignoring a previous appointment of two co-ordinators, which was still valid.
According to the charge sheet, the supply-chain stipulated that any goods or services in excess of a transaction value of R200 000, had to be procured through a competitive bidding process.
The prosecutor, senior State advocate Ezmeralda Johnson, alleges that the contracts and services exceeded the R200 000 maximum, after a payment of R2 005 271 to Kama.
It is alleged that between them, Swartz and Kenned received three “kickbacks” from Kama amounting to R65 950.
Each of the three now faces four counts of corruption, while, in addition to this, Kenned faces a charge of fraud as well.
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