Former ANC Gauteng Chief Whip Brian Hlongwa failed to declare his interests in Vox Telecom which was set up by Regiments Capital as part of a BEE consortium in which former ANC Johannesburg Finance MMC Geoff Makhubo was also given shares.
I have checked his declaration of interests from 2008 to 2011 when Vox was listed, but he failed to declare that he was allocated 515 883 shares in the Vox BEE Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
See document here.
According to the AmaBhungane investigation unit, this SPV was made up of 5 people who obtained 3 095 300 shares worth R1 million in total. They say the Vox deal unravelled and the share price collapsed, and speculate that the shares were gifted for influence purposes.
Hlongwa’s stake was potentially worth about R166 000, and should have been declared in 2008 when he was Health MEC and in subsequent years as well until the deal fell apart in 2011.
There was a definite conflict of interest as Regiments Healthcare, which was owned by Regiments Capital, is alleged to have got a contract for R3.5 million from the Gauteng Health Department.
Furthermore, according to court documents, Regiment’s Executive Director Niven Pillay paid Hlongwa a total of R1.7 million to assist him to buy a R7.2 million house in Bryanston.
I will be referring Hlongwa’s failure to declare this interest to the Gauteng Legislature’s Integrity Commissioner as Hlongwa is still a member of the Legislature and should be held to account for his breach of the Code of Conduct and Ethics.
It is a disgrace that Hlongwa still serves on the ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee despite being implicated in R1.2 billion corruption when he was Health MEC.
The latest revelations about Hlongwa and Geoff Makhubo’s links with Regiments, which scored handsomely from a long-running contract with Johannesburg Metro Council, shows that the ANC in Gauteng is not serious about combating corruption in its ranks.