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Johannesburg - A businessman described as being politically connected - also socially with a Gupta associate - allegedly stands to make R383.5m from a debt collection deal with the SABC, reported the Sunday Times.
The businessman, Kuben Moodley, is a former special adviser to Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane. Apparently he also plays golf with Salim Essa, an associate of the Guptas. In an SMS response to the Sunday paper Moodley, however, claims the SABC deal is contingency-based and no revenue is earned if TV licence fees are not recovered. He also claims all governance processes were followed regarding the deal and adds that it is irrelevant who his acquaintances are.
The Sunday Times claims it has seen internal SABC documents showing acting SABC CEO James Aguma awarded a debt collection contract to Moodley’s company LornaVision in 2015. The contract allegedly did not go out on tender first.
According to the Sunday Times, the SABC's executive committee gave the green light for a deviation from the normal tender procedures, but only for creating and implementing a pilot debt collection system. For this LornaVision would be paid a 10% cut of 10 000 licence renewals a month.
However, SABC sources told the Sunday paper that - without approval by the committee - these terms were later expanded in the actual contract to also include a cut for collections from so-called pirate television viewers. LornaVision apparently estimated it would be able to collect licence fees worth R500m a year from 1.8 million pirate viewers.
Furthermore, documents seen by the Sunday Times apparently indicate that LornaVision was paid its full two year consulting fee of R2.1m within weeks after having been appointed. This payment was queried by an SABC official as, in the official's view, it was not clear if LornaVision had delivered on all its deliverables at the time of the full payment.
In the view of SABC sources of the Sunday Times, licence revenue collection did not improve after LornaVision was appointed. Beforehand it was done by debt collectors and the SABC's own internal licence fee unit. One source even claims LornaVision is doing "far worse" than the debt collectors used before.
A spokesperson for the SABC told the Sunday paper a financial team is in place to oversee all financial matters.
* Read the full article in the Sunday Times.
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