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Moyane-era prisons tender referred to SIU

Johannesburg - A controversial multi-million rand prisons fencing tender, awarded during tax boss Tom Moyane’s term as head of prisons, has been referred to the Special Investigating Unit.

In a proclamation signed by President Jacob Zuma, the SIU has been authorised to investigate procurement between the department of correctional services (DCS) and the Independent Development Trust (IDT).

The IDT is a government agency reporting to the department of public works that manages the implementation of critical infrastructure programmes for departments.

Among the allegations the SIU is investigating are the unlawful and improper conduct of state officials; the unlawful expenditure of public money and serious maladministration.

The tender in question was awarded to SA Fence & Gate, part of the Sasstec (SA Security Solutions & Technologies) security group, in 2012 for almost R500m. A document seen by News24 shows that by November 2015, the contract was worth over R1.4bn.

Sasstec has been in the news for its litigation against Treasury over another correctional services tender for an inmate management system.

Monyane is reportedly a close friend of Patrick Monyeki, a 15% shareholder in Sasstec and former home affairs chief director of IT. amaBhungane recently linked Monyeki to meetings with correctional services officials, an allegation which he has denied.

Moyane and Monyeki are further linked through the controversial social grants tender awarded by the South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) in 2012 to Cash Paymaster Systems, that was later cancelled by the Constitutional Court.

Monyeki was contracted to be an IT technical adviser to the bid evaluation committee. The bid adjudication committee was chaired by Moyane.

Group CEO at Sasstec Geoff Greyling told News24 he had seen the proclamation on Monday morning and he did not want to comment on the allegations.

"We made a press statement a few months ago and we are sticking to that," Greyling said.

He had previously told amaBhungane that: "Insofar as the allegation of collusion between DCS officials and the Sasstec group is concerned, I can comfortably state there was none. All and any meetings which took place were held in a transparent manner, to deal with bona fide operational and project related issues."

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