When elite police unit the Hawks descend on the Eastern Cape for their multi-million rand fraud probe, one municipality they will focus on is Mnquma.
A recent Auditor-General (AG) report states the municipality has incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R59.3-million for the year ending June 30 2014.
Today the Saturday Dispatch can reveal that one of the companies to be probed is Big Event Boy (Pty) Ltd, owned by a 30-year-old Butterworth businessman, Sive Nombembe.
More than two years ago, a 28-year-old Nombembe was hardly generating R30 000 a month from this company – but today he is a multi-millionaire who rakes in between R500 000 and R900 000 a month.
In less than two years, confidential documents seen by the Dispatch revealed that for plasticonly, the company earned a cool R10-million out of the municipal coffers.
Documents seen by the Dispatch reveal that not a single cent was used to buy plastic– instead the money was transferred to individuals who are known to the Dispatch.
Nombembe is accused of “oiling the palms” of senior officials within the municipality with hundreds of thousands of rands.Nombembe denied this to the Dispatch earlier in the week “as many of these people, some at the municipality, are my friends”.
Big Event Boy won a tender to supplyrefusefor the the municipality in 2015, and for the past 22 months, he has been “supplying”at a cost of between R185 and R192 for a single packet of 20.
The normal price for the same packet of refuse plasticis between R20 and R30 at a number of popular retailers. Occasionally the municipality has paid Nombembe   R185 000 for the supply of 1000 refuse, but the same municipality is said to be borrowing similarfrom neighbouring local municipalities as their store is constantly empty. This could not be confirmed.
A source within Mnquma said the municipality was using between 100 000 and 130 000 refusea month, a quantity that Nombembe does not meet.
“For R200 000 we only get 1 000, where on earth can you get that for almost quarter of a million rand?” said one of the senior managers in the municipality who did not want to be named.
“At his age he has a fleet of cars, has a farm with prized cattle and a number of flats for students.”
But Nombembe said he was an honest businessman who did things by the book.
“Ask the municipality how I got this tender. I am an honest businessman who has a registered company that is doing business with the municipality,” he said.
Dispatch can today reveal that in the last two years Big Event Boy received R9.87-million, of which more than R2-million went to three people with code names.
The three individuals are said to be working for the municipality.
 One of the payments in the documents seen by the Dispatch refers to a payment of R35000 as “carport Tantsi”.
The Dispatch visited Mnquma municipal manager Sindile Tantsi’s Ntabankulu home this week and saw a carport with white pillars and corrugated iron.Asked about a Mercedes-Benz owned by Tantsi, Nombembe said he was a businessman who hired vehicles out to people.
Dispatch can further exclusively reveal that:
An individual coded as “Telkom” got R495000;
An individual coded as “ANC” got R717000;
An individual coded as “Sasco” got R803000 and
“Beb”  received R246000.
A few other individuals who benefited from the company, as seen in the statements, included:
“CC” who got R50 000; “The 1” got R31 933; “Ft” (R100 000); “EL” (R33 600); “Ftr” (R320 000); “Lgb” (R200 000); “Zam” (R100 000); “Mq” (R80 000); and “Fuso” (R302 500).
An amount of R20000 went to “itunes” while R10000 was paid to “None”.
But Nombembe defended these payments, saying some were loans.
“The money paid out of the company account are loans to individuals who then pay it back – there’s nothing wrong there as when I am in need of cash they do the same and transfer money to my account.”
Of this money, R300000 was a part payment for a Mercedes-Benz Viano, while R19949 was paid for a Mercedes Benz C350 AMG, believed to be driven by a senior manager in the municipality.
The Dispatch is in possession of a photograph of the vehicle which is inside a municipal-owned house in Butterworth. Referring to the fleet of luxurious vehicles he has, Nombembe said they were for his other businesses.
Another source said Nombembe was very close to Tantsi, which he didn’t deny.
“He’s a person I know and as far as I know he never influenced anyone for the plastics tender to be given to my company,” he said.
Despite receiving questions early in the week, Tantsi responded with a brief SMS yesterday saying: “Because you have suggested the matter is with the Hawks, I cannot comment”. — bonganif@dispatch.co.za..