TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

      12 August 2022

      Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

      12 August 2022

      Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

      12 August 2022

      Telkom says MTN talks remain on track

      12 August 2022

      Analysis | Rain muddies the waters with approach to Telkom

      11 August 2022
    • World

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022

      Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

      12 August 2022

      Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

      12 August 2022

      Ether at two-month high as upgrade to blockchain passes major test

      12 August 2022

      Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

      11 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»AG clears Pule, but questions remain

    AG clears Pule, but questions remain

    News By Craig Wilson3 August 2012
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Dina Pule

    Auditor-general Terence Nombembe has cleared communications minister Dina Pule of wrongdoing around the recent ICT Indaba hosted by the department of communications, the department said in a statement on Friday.

    This follows a series of reports in the Sunday Times in June and July in which it was alleged that funds allocated to the staging of the event were drawn by one of the event organisers, Phosane Mngqibisa, who is said to be romantically linked to the minster.

    However, Democratic Alliance MP and shadow communications minister Marian Shinn believes Pule must still answer questions about the alleged conflict of interest over Mngqibisa’s involvement in the indaba and wants the public protector to investigate.

    Mngqibisa’s company Khemano was contracted by the service provider for the event, businesswoman Carol Bouwer’s company, Carol Bouwer Designs. Mngqibisa was a second signatory to Bouwer’s bank account.

    The department of communications said on Friday that due process, in line with procurement policies and processes as prescribed by national treasury, was followed in appointing Carol Bouwer Designs as the service provider for the ICT Indaba.

    The auditor-general’s report on the matter will be available at the end of the month.

    The department says the idea of holding an ICT Indaba was first mooted as early as August 2010, before Pule became minister, and that Bouwer and Mngqibisa had met previously at private and state functions, including at the 2011 budget speech.

    When Pule took on the role of communications minister at the end of October 2011, the ICT Indaba was already a departmental project and in March 2012 the project assumed national importance after cabinet approval.

    The department contributed R10,5m to the event, with a further R25,7m coming from Vodacom, MTN and Telkom.

    The DA’s Shinn says that when she received notice from the auditor-general’s office that the use of the department’s R10,5m contribution would be probed, but not the nature of the minister’s relationship with Mngqibisa, she wrote to the public protector, Thuli Madonsela.

    “I wrote to public protector asking that she pick up my request to investigate the minister’s conduct. She said she would look into it, and asked under what legislation I would want the request made. I said the public protector’s act.”

    Shinn says she has not heard whether her request to the public protector would be investigated. “The minister says she’s been cleared, but that is just adding fuel to the smokescreen,” Shinn says. “[The minister] is trying to deflect attention from the issue of a potential conflict of interest. It was always her relationship with the organisers and whether she passed on instructions about which companies were to be used that have been the real issues.”

    Shinn says the auditor-general can only investigate matters concerning government money and not money coming from private entities such as the private-sector sponsors of the ICT Indaba. “If sponsors’ money benefited Mngqibisa, it’s beyond the auditor-general’s scope.”

    Shinn has also sent a request to the chairman of the parliamentary committee on members’ interests and ethics to investigate the matter. She says the request was sent two weeks ago but that parliament has been in recess and that she only expects a response in coming weeks.

    “We don’t know how long ago the organisation of this event started, and whether or not it preceded the minister taking up her position, but it has been billed as the minister’s idea. Still, that’s still not the issue. The minister signed off on the specifications for the event, and it seems a man close to her has already benefited from it,” Shinn says.

    “If those agreements were already in place before the minister took her role, one would think she would have distanced herself from the event because of the obvious conflict of interest.”

    Shinn says there have been “too many words and not enough actual explanation”, and that this has only led to “further obfuscation of the issue”.

    Neither Pule nor Mngqibisa have clarified the nature of their relationship. Shinn says that should the public protector fail to investigate the matter, she hopes the parliamentary committee will do so instead. “Like all MPs, the minister is also subject to parliaments’ rules,” she says.  — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media

    Carol Bouwer Carol Bouwer Designs Dina Pule ICT Indaba Marian Shinn MTN Phosane Mngqibisa Telkom Vodacom
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleInfraco improves financial position
    Next Article Pixar’s Brave lacks creative daring

    Related Posts

    Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

    12 August 2022

    Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

    12 August 2022

    Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

    12 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.