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Shezi’s alleged procurement contraventions are that he issued an RQF when offices were closed; did not source quotations from the central database according to National Treasury directives and internal supply chain management regulations; and copied a service provided in the e-mail he sent requesting quotations. 

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The board of the Construction Education and Training Authority (Ceta) CEO, Malusi Shezi, allegedly interfered so much in tender matters that he sidelined supply chain management officials and personally performed their work.

Instead of responding to The People’s Eye direct questions about the litany of allegations, the board has, however, resorted to ducking and diving.

The People’s Eye put its first batch of questions to board chairperson, Thabo Masombuka, on July 5 but he gave a generic response five days later.

The allegations, which are contained in a dossier with corroborating attachments, are that Shezi personally issued a request for quotation (RFQ) on January 4 2022 for companies to bid for a senior management recruitment support and board members details verification tender. Shezi allegedly did this without the involvement of any supply chain official even when one of the offered to do the job and warned him about incurring irregular expenditure.

Shezi’s alleged procurement contraventions are that he issued the request when the offices were closed; did not source quotations from the central data base according to National Treasury directives and internal supply chain management regulations; and copied a service provided in the e-mail he sent requesting the quotations.

According to the documents, on January 10 2022 senior supply manager Tumisho Mphuthi wrote an email to Shezi warning him about the irregularities.

Mphuti wrote: “Dear CEO. I am noting a red flag here. As things stand we will incur irregular expenditure because of the following.” Mphuthi lists concerns about Shezi usurping procurement officials’ responsibilities, such as placing the advertisement on the Ceta website.

“I humbly request a meeting with you to discuss these red flags. Remember CEO, I had offered to action the RQF even though we were on holiday. The next thing you actioned the RQF yourself by advertising the RQF on the website.”

Mphuti has since been suspended on June 1 2023 among four other supply chain management officials. She has claimed that the suspension was a witch hunt to silence him as the charges relate to a 2019 matter that was investigated and concluded.

Masombuka said in a statement that since the suspension of certain CETA staff for transgressions, the board had received weekly media inquiries from newspapers and other outlets. 

“These inquiries,” said Masombuka,” often contain allegations aimed at assassinating the character of our CEO and discrediting the work of

the Ceta Board.” 

Masombuka said that Ceta would respond after an investigation into transgressions by officials was finalised.  “We urge everyone, including former and current disgruntled employees, not to pre-empt the outcome or compromise the investigation by spreading false rumours in the media.

We also plead with members of the media not to allow themselves to be used as tools for spreading these rumours,” he said.

Shezi was also alleged to have signed an adjudication report on a tender awarded to Five Star Communications on December 9 2021 for the supply of promotional materials before all bid adjudication committee members had done so. 

The company was not tax compliant when Shezi allegedly signed the report. Five Star had to be given seven days to fix their tax status.

The Five Star Communications tender was capped at R35 million for a period of 36 months. He also allegedly sent an appointment letter himself to the service provider.