A R20 0000 “donation” for a draughts tournament is under scrutiny after it turned out that the recipient was the husband of Buffalo City Metro’s sports sponsorship committee chairperson at the time.
The Daily Dispatch understands the funds formed part of a R16-million allocation to different sporting codes for the 2015-16 financial year – an amount not approved by the council.
Also curious was how two companies – one a gardening service, and the other a cleaning concern – came to be awarded R500000 in sponsorships intended for sports (see sidebar).
Some of these payments now form part of a forensic investigation into how the committee, formerly chaired by councillor Ayanda Peter, disbursed the funds.
Council resolved last week that an external probe should uncover how councillors’ spouses and family members benefited from the multimillion-rand funding. The council also wants to know how the money was spent and if the legal prescripts were complied with.
Contacted for comment, Peter said the matter was being investigated. “Speak to the executive mayor as the matter is with his office and forensic,” she said.
The Daily Dispatch has established that Peter, who chaired the sports sponsorship committee last year, approved funding for her husband Tori Mcilongo under the company Ayato Enterprise (Pty) Ltd – seemingly a shortened version of the names Ayanda and Tori.
Documents seen by the Dispatch revealed how an amount of R200000 was transferred to the company for a draughts tournament that was scheduled to take place in September.
Contacted for comment Mcilongo declined to answer questions, saying he did not speak to newspapers.
“What does that have to do with me? I don’t speak to newspapers,” he said.
Reports showed that Mcilongo said the funds would be spent on:
- Accommodation: R20 000;
- Catering: R18 000;
- Tournament venue: R4 000;
- Banners, posters and media adverts: R6 000;
- PA and music system: R10 000;
- Remuneration for officials: R50 000;
- Transport: R10 000;
- Prize winners: R72 000;
- New draughts boards: R8 000; and
- Appearance fee: R2 000.
It is not clear if the said tournament even took place.
It is also understood that the committee has now been split into two committees, that deal with sports and sponsorship separately.
Peter now chairs the sports committee while the sponsorship committee is led by councillor Pumla Nazo.
Sources who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity said according to municipal policy, any funding over R200000 needed to be approved by council.
“What they did was illegal – the spending of all those funds was not approved by council. Some of the events that were allocated funds did not even take place. So the question is, where did the money go,” said a source.
During a council meeting that took place last week, former speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele and councillor Sindile Toni called for external investigators to probe the matter, saying because some councillors were involved it would not be good for the institution to do the probe internally.
Simon-Ndzele said: “Remember that I was a speaker and I know that councillors are supposed to declare their financial interests and when you look here there is a spouse of the councillors who have benefited from the project.
“So I wanted to support further that speaks about a forensic investigation, because if the spouse has benefited you should have declared that and excused yourself from the meeting.”
BCM mayoral spokesman Sibusiso Cindi declined to answer questions, and said: “By commenting now, we feel that we can jeopardise or negatively affect the investigation.
“The BCM council made a pronouncement that there should be an investigation regarding the sports sponsorship.
“At the moment we don’t know as to when the investigation will start and what its scope will be.” — mamelag@dispatch.co.za/
msindisif@dispatch.co.za
Probe into R200k ‘donation’
The Daily Dispatch understands the funds formed part of a R16-million allocation to different sporting codes for the 2015-16 financial year – an amount not approved by the council.
Also curious was how two companies – one a gardening service, and the other a cleaning concern – came to be awarded R500000 in sponsorships intended for sports (see sidebar).
Some of these payments now form part of a forensic investigation into how the committee, formerly chaired by councillor Ayanda Peter, disbursed the funds.
Council resolved last week that an external probe should uncover how councillors’ spouses and family members benefited from the multimillion-rand funding. The council also wants to know how the money was spent and if the legal prescripts were complied with.
Contacted for comment, Peter said the matter was being investigated. “Speak to the executive mayor as the matter is with his office and forensic,” she said.
The Daily Dispatch has established that Peter, who chaired the sports sponsorship committee last year, approved funding for her husband Tori Mcilongo under the company Ayato Enterprise (Pty) Ltd – seemingly a shortened version of the names Ayanda and Tori.
Documents seen by the Dispatch revealed how an amount of R200000 was transferred to the company for a draughts tournament that was scheduled to take place in September.
Contacted for comment Mcilongo declined to answer questions, saying he did not speak to newspapers.
“What does that have to do with me? I don’t speak to newspapers,” he said.
Reports showed that Mcilongo said the funds would be spent on:
It is not clear if the said tournament even took place.
It is also understood that the committee has now been split into two committees, that deal with sports and sponsorship separately.
Peter now chairs the sports committee while the sponsorship committee is led by councillor Pumla Nazo.
Sources who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity said according to municipal policy, any funding over R200000 needed to be approved by council.
“What they did was illegal – the spending of all those funds was not approved by council. Some of the events that were allocated funds did not even take place. So the question is, where did the money go,” said a source.
During a council meeting that took place last week, former speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele and councillor Sindile Toni called for external investigators to probe the matter, saying because some councillors were involved it would not be good for the institution to do the probe internally.
Simon-Ndzele said: “Remember that I was a speaker and I know that councillors are supposed to declare their financial interests and when you look here there is a spouse of the councillors who have benefited from the project.
“So I wanted to support further that speaks about a forensic investigation, because if the spouse has benefited you should have declared that and excused yourself from the meeting.”
BCM mayoral spokesman Sibusiso Cindi declined to answer questions, and said: “By commenting now, we feel that we can jeopardise or negatively affect the investigation.
“The BCM council made a pronouncement that there should be an investigation regarding the sports sponsorship.
“At the moment we don’t know as to when the investigation will start and what its scope will be.” — mamelag@dispatch.co.za/
msindisif@dispatch.co.za
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