‘I’m just a BEE cash cow for firm’

Another Gauteng company has been accused of using a black employee to increase its black economic empowerment (BEE) rating in order to score tenders with the government. Pretoria-based electrical company Prodocom lured Betty Matshediso Mahlangu from her job at Mamelodi Hospital with an offer of a directorship in the firm. Now she claims she hasn’t been paid the full dividends of her shares. Mahlangu, from Mamelodi West, owned a 30 percent stake in Prodocom, which has a triple BEE “procurement recognition level of 135 percent”, according to documents The Star has seen. She has accused Prodocom of using her as a cash cow, then discarding her after winning lucrative contracts. The SANDF, SAPS, the departments of Public Works, Home Affairs and Health as well as the Passenger Rail Agency of SA have all awarded contracts to Prodocom since 2007, after Mahlangu became a director in the company.

Documents The Star has seen show the contracts were worth between R1 million and R3m each. But Prodocom co-director Estelle Jooste denied that the company was fronting. “She (Mahlangu) is actually lying. It’s fronting on her side because she doesn’t want to come to work. We are in the process of laying a case of fronting against her,” said Jooste. Last week, The Star published a story reporting that Benoni company Zevoli Industrial Supplies had fronted about 10 of its black employees to win multimillion-rand contracts from the government, state-owned as well as private businesses. Mahlangu said she thought her years of toiling for meagre wages as a community liaison officer at the hospital were over after Prodocom’s previous owner, Louie Elsa, approached her. “I thought it was manna from heaven,” said Mahlangu, who claimed she was paid a monthly salary of R1 000 even before her contract at the hospital lapsed.

Elsa later introduced her to Jooste and her husband Robert, who, Mahlangu said, were silent partners in Prodocom before buying it. Mahlangu said her problems started in November 2009 when Jooste told her the company was experiencing cash- flow problems. “She told me to stop coming to the office. She said I would continue receiving my monthly salary of R4 000 while sitting at home,” Mahlangu said. She said she later found out Prodocom had been awarded three contracts by the defence force. She started querying her shares in August 2012, after attending a BEE-related meeting, hosted by the Gauteng Department of Economic Development. Mahlangu claims Jooste later phoned her, offering her a R250 000 payment, to be made in instalments of R50 000 a month. But Mahlangu said this was paid in fluctuating instalments of between R10 000 and R50 000. Another dispute arose in 2013, after Mahlangu said she was paid R10 000 for a R1.3m contract she helped secure for the company from Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.

The hospital had wanted to award the contract to another bidder because Prodocom delayed signing a letter of appointment and Mahlangu pleaded on behalf of the firm. In May last year, she said Jooste phoned her, requesting a meeting. Mahlangu said Robert claimed they could make more money if she worked with them rather than being paid on a monthly basis. She said he then asked his wife to give her R10 000, but she told them she didn’t want to sit at home, so she returned to work. It was when Robert allegedly told her in April that Prodocom was under threat of liquidation and that her properties could be attached, that she resigned. That was on July 9.

Prodocom’s Response

Louie Elsa referred enquiries to Estelle Jooste, who said: “This isn’t the first time that she has claimed she has been fronted. Whenever she needs money, she does that, but she doesn’t want to work.” However, Jooste admitted that Betty Mahlangu used to sign tender documents while she remained at home. “She insisted we take documents to her house,” Jooste said, confirming Mahlangu was still an active director in the company, despite her resignation. Asked if the company would pay Mahlangu dividends, Jooste said:”I need to get an auditor to check what the company is worth. “It will take a while.”