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Fraud

Durban Solid Waste Tender Deal: State and Defence Disagree on Household Numbers

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

The Durban High Court case of former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede and her 21 co-accused has led to a disagreement between the State and the defence on how a previous witness established the number of households that needed to be serviced in a R320 million Durban Solid Waste tender deal. The State proposes that the figures in the tender's bid specification were provided by Allan Robert Abbu, the Deputy Head for cleansing and solid waste at the time. However, the defence disputes this, citing witness X's evidence that Abbu gave her a document with the figure of the number of households that needed to be serviced, and that she was under pressure while drafting the advertisement.

Key Takeaways:

  • The State and the defence disagree on how a previous witness established the number of households that needed to be serviced in the R320 million Durban Solid Waste tender deal.
  • The State proposes that the figures in the tender's bid specification were provided by Allan Robert Abbu, the Deputy Head for cleansing and solid waste at the time.
  • The defence disputes this, citing witness X's evidence that Abbu gave her a document with the figure of the number of households that needed to be serviced.
  • Witness X testified that she was under pressure while drafting the advertisement, and Abbu was standing behind her.
  • The document containing the household numbers that Abbu gave to witness X is not disputed by the defence.
  • Witness Y, who was called to confirm project budgets and estimate them, testified that the number of households in the BAC report prepared by witness X was tripled and some were doubled.
  • The State is leading evidence of witness Y to support their case.

Statistics:

  • R320 million: the value of the Durban Solid Waste tender deal.
  • 21: the number of co-accused of former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede.

Sources:

  • "State and defence disagree on household numbers in R320m tender case" by Nomonde Zondi, THE State (no publication date provided)

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