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Skweyiya is in a fix because Batho Bonke is an empowerment partner of Allpay, an Absa subsidiary that has shown an interest in disbursing R70bn a year to more than 12 million social grant recipients in the nine provinces. The winner of the tender will make R3 billion a year. Social development spokesperson Lakela Kaunda says the tender is still being processed.
The shares awarded to Thuthukile Edy Skweyiya were worth R1.2m on Friday. For most of last year, when Absa's share price was R136, her shares peaked at R3.1m. The shares took a knock with rising inflation and dropped to R96 on Friday afternoon.
Sexwale's interest in the disbursement of R70bn to pensioners has raised the ire of other empowerment players. They feel Sexwale is potentially advantaged by the fact that the minister whose department is in charge of the tender is a recipient of his largesse.
Mvelaphanda Group has a 44.7% interest in Batho Bonke Capital, which has preference shares in Absa valued at 10% of the bank. Company registration documents show that the directors of Batho Bonke Capital are ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa, Mvelaphanda Group chief executive Yolanda Cuba and vice-chairperson of Barclays Capital, Leslie Maasdorp.
Absa owns Allpay, which has been disbursing grants in four provinces for the past few years.
Batho Bonke has allocated several shares to prominent South Africans such as Phosa, Natal Judge President Vuka Tshabalala, former National Intelligence Agency director-general Billy Masetlha, former Northern Cape premier Manne Dipico, Vusi Mavimbela, a former National Intelligence Agency director-general, journalist Sophie Mokoena, political analyst and columnist Xolela Mangcu and Thuthukile Skweyiya.
'Plainly inappropriate'
Kaunda recently said Skweyiya was not involved in the adjudication of tenders. She said an adjudication committee would soon be appointed which would recommend the winner(s) to Skweyiya, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.
Some of the bidders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said awarding the tender to Allpay might "create an impression that Skweyiya is scratching Sexwale's back, given that he had remembered them (the Skweyiya family) when he gave out shares to prominent people five years ago".
Another source said it would be "plainly inappropriate" for Skweyiya's department to award a hugely contested tender to Sexwale, who had given the family many shares.
When City Press asked Thuthukile Skweyiya how many shares she had last week, her husband responded through Kaunda that the family had received only 1 000 shares. He said in a written response: "My wife was informed that she had been offered 1 000 shares in Bantu/Batho (Bonke), like many other ANC comrades. That would never influence the adjudication of the tender."
However, City Press already had share certificates from Sizwe Ntsaluba - custodians of Batho Bonke shares. The certificates showed she had 45 800 shares. The shares are housed in an entity, Business Venture Investments No 926.
City Press had to rely on its lawyer, Willem de Klerk, to compel Tersia Henn, the company's secretarial manager, to make the documents available. She had initially said because of the high-profile nature of the shareholders' she could not allow us access to the share register without their consent.
Another source said: "The obvious thing is to ask why the minister would mislead the public about the number of shares the family received from Batho Bonke. Is there something to hide? Does he stand to lose anything if he spoke the truth? Documents don't lie. Skweyiya must explain the glaring contradictions of his statement and what Batho Bonke auditors say his wife owns."
'No conflict of interest'
When City Press sent Kaunda proof that Skweyiya was wrong about the number of shares his wife owned and asked for an explanation of the discrepancy, she said she was on leave and referred inquiries to Zingaphi Jakuja.
Jakuja said on Wednesday that Thuthukile Skweyiya's share ownership was a "private matter" but would "facilitate the response". It had not been received at the time of going to press.
Mvelaphanda Holdings spokesperson Chris Vick said company records showed that Thuthukile Skweyiya had 45 800 Batho Bonke shares.
He said Batho Bonke Investments was a 2% shareholder in Allpay which was submitting bids for nine provincial tenders.
"As we have repeatedly pointed out to you, Mr Sexwale resigned from the board of Absa some time ago and is far removed from this process. He would, in any event, not have been involved in this or any other Absa tender process.
"There is no conflict of interest and we reject your suggestion that there may be. It is based on ignorance or malice."
Skweyiya had earlier said: "Even though cabinet appointed three departments to oversee the policy making for Sassa (the SA Social Security Act), tendering is an administrative function. No minister is involved. That is a long-standing ANC policy."
- City Press
