Johannesburg - Businessman Roux Shabangu has claimed that he
was offered R50m by former public works minister Geoff Doidge to walk away from
the R500m police building lease debacle, media reported on Sunday.
Shabangu made the claim in an affidavit filed at the North
Gauteng High Court this week, in a bid to save the lease contract, City Press
and the Sunday Independent reported.
He said he refused to abandon the lease.
He blames Doidge and the department of public works for
jeopardising a R220m financing deal with Nedbank to buy the building.
The lease, worth R500m, was cancelled after Public Protector
Thuli Madonsela found that it was awarded without being put out to tender and
that the behaviour of police chief Bheki Cele and Doidge's successor, Gwen
Mahlangu-Nkabinde, was irregular and unlawful.
Both Cele and Mahlangu-Nkabinde have been suspended.
Shabangu's affidavit claims suspended public works
director general Siviwe Dongwana told Nedbank that the department would go
ahead with the deal, irrespective of the outcome of investigations by Madonsela
and the Special Investigating Unit.
Public Works official Mokgaetji Tlolane told Shabangu that
the department would not go out to tender on the deal as office space was
needed urgently, City Press reported the affidavit as saying.
Shabangu said the deal was signed without the involvement of Cele.