THE State has been ordered to get its house in order as it presented documents that were bungled in the fraud trial relating to the R300 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender in which former Durban Mayor Zandile Gumede, former deputy head of DSW Robert Abbu and 20 others are charged.

This emerged as the State led evidence in the Durban High Court on Friday regarding the 2017 quotations of Ilanga La Mahlase PTY (LTD), one of the service providers that tendered for waste collection in Durban.

Some pages were duplicated, the numbering was mixed up, and 2018 documents, including documents of another service provider, Uzuzinekele Trading 31 CC, were found. Both companies are charged in this matter.

The accused are facing a litany of charges, including conspiracy to commit corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act.

The State said they received the bundle of these documents from the forensic company that investigated this matter for the City of eThekwini, Integrity Forensic Solutions CC (IFS).

IFS was appointed by the City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU), which is an investigations unit within the municipality.

“The State needs to properly look at the bundles (document bundles) to make sure that there is no mix-up,” said Judge Sharmaine Balton.

Furthermore, a State witness, whom we cannot name as per a court order, said that on December 14, 2017, the bid adjudication committee (BAC) approved the DSW unit to seek quotations from experienced service providers to collect waste around the city.

The unit sought quotations due to the approaching expiration of the service providers' contracts for waste collection.

It had issued a tender for waste collection but had received numerous bids and realised that they would not be able to screen all of them as it was during the festive season and some departments were closing. Therefore, they needed to extend the contracts of the experienced service providers.

The witness, who is a contract administrator in the city, said Abbu had sent her and a colleague to a BAC meeting as he had an emergency. She said he called to ask if the BAC approved their request.

She then updated Abbu on what happened at the BAC. Abbu instructed her to refrain from involving her other colleague and to wait for him to provide more guidance. According to the witness, she did nothing as directed.

Advocate Reshma Athmaram, counsel appointed by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), asked her if she followed up after receiving the email to not do anything.

“I did not follow up because Abbu is senior to me, he is experienced, and I don’t doubt his judgement.”

She said that on December 17, 2017, Abbu sent an email to her at 10.15pm and asked her to call him as he wanted to sign everything before he went on leave. The email had a quotation document attached.

“He kept on emphasising the emergency of having this sorted and that he was under pressure because he had to have these services done before the end of December,” the witness added.

The witness said she made mistakes while she drafted the quotation documents as she was under pressure, and Abbu wanted her to also draft some other documents relating to this tender on the same day. She further said Abbu was going on leave on December 18, so everything had to be in order for him to sign.

“Abbu would come to my office to see how I was preparing the document. I relied on him for all technical requirements,” she said.

The matter will continue on Monday.

nomonde.zondi@inl.co.za

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Documents bungle hits R300m Durban waste tender fraud trial