‘We hereby wish to advise you that the Department of Police, Roads
and Transport has followed due processes in terms of Supply Chain
Management as required for the appointment of contractors in the
Contractor Development Programme,’ it told me.^16
Apart from lucrative contracts, the DPRT also gave the connected
companies Ford Ranger bakkies, trailers and grass-cutting equipment
free of charge. Previous CDP beneficiaries were not as fortunate. The
department told me that the vehicles and equipment had cost taxpayers
R 11 million, but the figure seemed a little low. After my story on the
scandal broke in the Daily Maverick, a local DA councillor told
Volksblad that some of the bakkies were seen all over Parys and that a
few of them had been fitted with tinted windows and shiny ‘mag’
wheels.^17 It was unclear how many of these vehicles were actually
being used for grass cutting and other road maintenance projects.
The worst part of the CDP scandal is that it came at great cost to a
group of emerging contractors in the Free State with no political
connections. When I first researched the matter, I spoke to a few
contractors who had been included in the CDP initially. They told me
that their contracts from the DPRT dried up when Thoko Malembe,
Ezekiel Magashule and the other connected businesspeople were
pushed into the programme. By early 2019 , the situation had not
changed. ‘The department does not want to hear us out,’ said one
dejected former CDP beneficiary. ‘If you want to get anywhere in this
province, you have to be connected to Ace.’
nora
(Nora)
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