Mayor accuses councillor of grandstanding on issue of 'R300m housing tender fraud'

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has accused Cape Coloured Congress (CCC) leader Fadiel Adams of grandstanding in the media with regards to making public the controversial forensic report into allegations of a multi-million rand tender fraud at the City.

Hill-Lewis said the matter, which was now with the police, was still under investigation and as such the report remained confidential. Investigations into the report by the police led to the arrest of eight people, including City officials and the directors of local businesses, last November for allegedly defeating the ends of justice in connection with a tender from the City’s housing maintenance department.

Adams, who raised the issue during a council meeting, also demanded that the City blacklist all implicated contractors. He said the City should act against officials involved in the alleged inflating of invoices, irregular payments of service providers for construction work not undertaken, and other illicit activities, in excess of R300 million. Adams accused the City of refusing to be open and transparent about the matter.

He said he had heard the mayor say during an interview on Radio 786 that the City had taken steps against administrators and the contractor to regain the funds the City had lost. Adams argued that there were a number of companies that had cost the City hundreds of millions of rand and had never been blacklisted or criminally charged, and that the City had never made an effort to reclaim a cent from them. He said the incidents he was quoting were from the City’s records.

“I challenge the mayor to explain to us why big white businesses get away with criminality. And then I also ask them to just please show us the document which confirms that the City has taken steps on the contract to reclaim the money.” Replying to Adams, Hill-Lewis said: “Councillor Adams has himself handed the matter over to the SAPS, now he must wait for their investigation to conclude if he wants some answers.”

Hill-Lewis said that in October 2022, Adams and anti-crime activist Hanif Loonat lodged a formal complaint with the police regarding the matter and that since then, the City had been co-operating fully with the investigation. “The City has provided the tender files requested by SAPS, with various other documents as well as the full forensic report in respect of FSD015/2020-21,” he said.

Hill-Lewis said the police had requested voluminous additional information, including all the original emails and texts and contractual information. “Those took us about a month to compile, but all of them have been handed over in full. So the only reason for councillor Adams’ continued insistence that information be provided to him personally is because he doesn’t have any information of his own, and he wants to grandstand in the media.”

CCC member Christopher Scheepers said in a letter: “Our leader, Fadiel Adams, has been fighting a lone but unrelenting public battle for full disclosure by the City. In a functioning, truly transparent government there would be no need for such a fight.”

He said that when confronted with allegations of fraud and corruption within the public housing unit, the City should have exercised its fiduciary obligation to report it to the police as required by the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.