ANC says DA caught-out favouring Didata
The Western Cape ANC says the DA in the province needs to come clean on allegations that it has given Dimension Data (Didata) a lucrative R4,3 million Rand contract in exchange for "generous support" (see Sunday Times report).
The ANC also questions the redeployment of a DA cadre to Plettenberg Bay as the Bitou municipality manager to possibly cover up and give contracts to the DA suppliers and sponsors.
Mr Duppie du Plessis, former municipal manager in Stellenbosch, who left under a cloud after an alleged racist E-mail, now popped up in Bitou to oversee DA interests. He was not appointed by the Bitou council, but imposed by the DA's provincial leaders for which they bent laws to deploy their cadre and exceeding all provisions for his tenure there.
ANC local government spokesperson Pierre Uys says: "The DA has been exposed for giving preference to Didata taking short cuts, breaking its own principles for the procurement process for such a large amount at the behest of the DA's leaders. The relationship between the DA, Didata and a Didata chairman Jeremy Ord, who stays in Plettenberg Bay and is a DA backer, needs to be explained satisfactorily. So far the evidence is damning that the DA asked favours to benefit Ord and other highflyers."
An expose quoted a letter between the DA and officials telling them of "Ord and others who have supported us generously" frequenting a certain restaurant, Lookout (which was in need of repair after a storm).
"The DA is caught-out again. It is clearly hiding something from Bitou and the Western Cape. This case also smacks of the award of a multi-million Rand communications contract to TBWA Hunt Lascaris as well as the many deviations amounting to hundreds of millions of Rand in the DA-led City of Cape Town. The DA does not want to get its house in order, and action should be taken to probe the DA abuse here and in other municipalities," says Uys.
Statement issued by ANC Western Cape Chief Whip Pierre Uys, February 8 2012
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