Company paid R49K to buy toilet rolls, soaps for Mandela’s funeral

The R49000 bought 100 toilet rolls, 120 brooms, 100 cans of air freshener, 100 toilet cleaner bottles, 50 cleaning cloths and 12 bars of soap.

The supplies were for the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela.

Buffalo City Metro provided 25 officials and the cost of their accommodation and transport came to about R300000.

The money however had not been paid to the service provider.

No further explanation was given.

Payments were also made to:

• Mvundla Group, which was paid R440000 for the hire of 20 VIP toilets for five days and two flushing toilets for five days;
• Sandisiwe Projects, paid R270000 for the hire of toilets, reportedly used at taxi ranks and bus ranks;
• Various companies for grass cutting and street cleaning services which came to more than R1.7-million;
• A local transport company paid R23940 to transport family members to and from Qunu; and
• Bravo Afrika, paid R600000 by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and just more than R1-million by KSD to supply 12000 adult sized T-shirts, 3000 children’s T-shirts, 10000 small flags and eight indoor flag poles for South African and KSD flags.

A further R300000 was spent on 10000 flags supplied by the Mvundla Group; R78200 was paid for 1000 golf shirts for local, provincial and national leaders.

The report stated that the procurement of all the items was pre-approved by Marion Mbina-Mthembu, the head of department for provincial treasury.

Opposition parties welcomed the resolution to rope in the National Treasury Department.

“The report as it stands has no substance,” said UDM councillor Ndiyabulela Mtwa. “People used the funeral as an opportunity to steal money. They must be brought to book.”

“Everybody is aware of the report, all they should have done is hand it over to the Hawks immediately so that they can investigate,” DA’s Raymond Knock said.

Council speaker Dumani Zozo could not be reached for comment. — abongilem@dispatch.co.za