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Twist in 'rich cop' saga
09/05/2008 13:02 - (SA)
Julian Rademeyer and Msimelelo Njwabane, Beeld
Johannesburg - The wife of Durban's 'billionaire' metro cop secured a R10,3m housing deal funded in part by the eThekwini Municipality where he works.
S'bu Mpisane, 48, a sergeant in the Metro police dog unit reportedly earning R15 000 a month, hit the headlines last week when it emerged that he and his accountant wife Shauwn Mkhize, 33, owned a R15,5m mansion in La Lucia.
Now questions are being asked about a housing tender granted to a company owned by Mkhize, her business dealings with the municipality and whether she declared her links to Mpisane and to an ANC councillor believed to be her mother.
A lawyer acting for the Mpisane family has threatened to sue anyone who 'defames' them.
The Democratic Alliance on Thursday wrote to the Kwazulu-Natal head of the Scorpions calling for them to investigate Mpisane's "lavish lifestyle".
eThekwini councillor John Steenhuisen wrote that "it is abundantly clear that Mpisane could not afford this lifestyle on a police officer's salary".
No comment
The municipality coughed up R3,5m in January 2004 to fund the Lamontville housing project and develop 277 sites. The balance of funding came from the Department of Housing.
Zikhulise Construction was awarded the tender to build the "top structures", according to a press release issued before the launch on January 17, 2004.
The only company that corresponds on the eThekwini municipal suppliers list is Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport which is owned by Mkhize. A previous member of the business was Dumazile Mkhize, 65, an eThekwini ANC councillor who, according to Steenhuisen, is Mkhize's mother.
Contacted on Thursday, the councillor refused to comment and referred Beeld to the same legal team representing the younger Mkhize. According to Cipro, the elder Mkhize resigned from the business on February 25, 2004 - a month after the tender was announced.
According to the municipality's "vendor" records, Zikhulise's listed "competencies" include civil construction, concrete works, fencing, general building work, paving, plumbing and roadworks. It can also supply building materials, cleaning supplies and chemicals, food supplies and stationery.
According to a print-out of the municipality's computerised records seen by Beeld, Zikhulise has five full-time employees and lists its annual turnover at only R200 000.
Contacted on Thursday Mkhize did not deny securing the tender but declined to comment and referred all queries to her legal representatives.
Lawyer Thipe Mothuloe - who is acting for her and her husband - said he was unable to comment on whether his client had declared a conflict of interest as he had not seen the tender documents submitted to the municipality.
"What is wrong with being a cop and being a millionaire?...What are you seeking to achieve with that line of questioning?," Mothuloe asked.
He said he had been "instructed to institute legal action against the publications who have clearly defamed my client by suggesting he is a fraudster".
"You must just be careful about that," he warned.
Ethekwini city manager Mike Sutcliffe would not be drawn on whether Mkhize had declared her inetersts or whether there was a conflict.
"The Mpisane issue emerged out of our own investigations into procurement matters. I'm not going to answer to specific now until our investigations are complete."
Mum on source of wealth
Another company of which Mkhize is the sole member, Ukhozi Civil Cleaning and Construction CC, is also on the eThekwini Municipality. It too has five full-time employees, but a far greater annual turnover of R5m.
In 2004, Mkhize's business was highlighted in the Soros Economic Development Fund annual report as a beneficiary of Nurcha, a not-for-profit construction finance company funded by the South African Government and the Soros Foundation.
According to the report, Mkhize - an accountant - had started business with contracts to renovate schools. In March 2003, it built 117 houses in KwaZulu-Natal
Not long afterwards, Mkhize received another construction contract worth about R4,7m to build 307 low-income houses.
She obtained a R1,4m loan from Nurcha. According to the Soros report she made a R290 000 profit. By 2004 she was involved in two other projects.
Mpisane has remained mum about the source of his wealth. "I do a lot of things other than being a policeman, but I cannot mention them right now," he said last week.
He also bragged that he was a qualified pilot, a claim dismissed by the Civil Aviation Authority who said his student pilot licence expired in March.
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