{"id":107998,"date":"2014-08-16T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-16T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=107998"},"modified":"2014-08-16T13:34:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-16T11:34:59","slug":"biggest-tech-scandals-in-sa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/107998-biggest-tech-scandals-in-sa.html","title":{"rendered":"Biggest tech scandals in SA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s accusations that Telkom\u2019s CEO, Sipho Maseko, has been driving around with cloned number plates<\/strong><\/a> on his luxury 4×4, or the seemingly endless controversy surrounding the SABC\u2019s board (and COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng<\/strong><\/a>, in particular), there\u2019s no shortage of scandalous tales for South African journalists to chase. Here are five of the standouts from recent years.<\/p>\n

Dina Pule, her boyfriend and the ICT Indaba<\/h3>\n

Over the last decade, South Africa\u2019s department of communications has had more ministers than a Methodist convention, most of whom have raised more eyebrows than hopes. Though competition is stiff for the title of most-scandalous minister, the prize has to go to Dina Pule<\/strong><\/a>. Pule succeeded the late Roy Padayachie<\/strong><\/a>, having previously held the position of deputy minister of communications from May 2009 until October 2010, when she was sacked along with then minister of communications, Siphiwe Nyanda.<\/p>\n

In between accusing the Sunday Times newspaper of lying, failing to make any progress on South Africa\u2019s much-needed transition to digital terrestrial television and feuding with her director general Rosey Sekese, Pule still found time to take her romantic partner, businessman Phosane Mngqibisa on international trips \u2013 in violation of parliament\u2019s rules \u2013 and enabled Mngqibisa to siphon sponsors money for the 2012 ICT Indaba to his own companies\u2019 accounts<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both the public protector and parliament\u2019s ethics committee found Pule had abused her position and that Mngqibisa had benefited from his relationship with her \u2013 a relationship she continued to deny, right up until she was removed from her position and replaced by Yunus Carrim in July last year.<\/p>\n

Net1 and the social grants debacle<\/h3>\n

In October 2012, the high court found the South African Social Security Agency\u2019s tender processes \u2013 which saw it award five-year, R10bn tender to JSE- and NYSE-listed Net1 subsidiary<\/strong><\/a>, Cash Paymaster Services \u2013 were illegal and invalid, but failed to set the contract aside because of the disruption it would cause in the payment of social grants to those who rely on them.<\/p>\n

Absa\u2019s AllPay subsidiary had also been vying for the contract, and prompted the court action.<\/p>\n

The constitutional court eventually ruled that the tender be reissued in April this year, prompting Net1\u2019s share price to fall 30%.<\/p>\n

Telkom CFO\u2019s suspension and departure<\/h3>\n

Last week Telkom chief financial officer, Jacques Schindeh\u00fctte resigned following a disciplinary hearing<\/strong><\/a>. Last October Schindeh\u00fctte was suspended for what the operator called \u201cpersonal misconduct\u201d having weeks earlier purchased R6m in Telkom shares using a company loan \u2013 something the company continues to deny is related to Schindeh\u00fctte\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

Schindeh\u00fctte previously claimed the loan and subsequent share purchase were approved by both Telkom\u2019s CEO, Sipho Maseko, and chairman of the board, Jabu Mabuza. Telkom has since said the board was not in a position to, and did not, approve the loan.<\/p>\n

The Free State provincial website<\/h3>\n

In 2011, a company run by businessman Tumi Ntsele won a tender allegedly worth more as much as R140m to redesign the website of the provincial government of the Free State<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the eye-watering figure was sufficiently controversial in its own right, it was compounded by the fact that Ntsele reportedly already held numerous tenders from various provincial departments. For extra controvery points, Ntsele is also linked to the Letlaka Group, a media company responsible for a government-friendly publication called \u201cThe Weekly\u201d.<\/p>\n

In March last year the auditor general agreed to investigate the awarding of the contract, after a request lodged by the Democratic Alliance, along with other tenders issued by the office of Free State premier, Ace Magashule, who reportedly has close tied to Ntsele.<\/p>\n

Pinnacle boss arrested<\/h3>\n

In March, executive director of Pinnacle Holdings, Takalani Tshivhase, was arrested for alleged corruption<\/strong><\/a>. Tshivhase stands accused of trying to bribe a senior member of the South African Police Service in order to secure a lucrative contract.<\/p>\n

To add to the scandal, Tshivhase sold R4m worth of Pinnacle shares \u2013 with the board\u2019s consent \u2013 shortly before his arrest made headlines, while Pinnacle CEO Arnold Fourie snapped up more than R13m worth of the company\u2019s shares \u2013 then thoroughly depressed \u2013 in the days following Tshivhase\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

Source: Moneyweb<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every industry has its scandals, and the South African technology sector is no exception, writes Craig Wilson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340930,"featured_media":108002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[6002,35,8489,1699,26352,26350,24244,235,279,24246,109,18382],"class_list":["post-107998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-dina-pule","tag-headline","tag-hlaudi-motsoeneng","tag-jacques-schindehutte","tag-letlaka-group","tag-net1","tag-pinnacle-holdings","tag-siphiwe-nyanda","tag-sipho-maseko","tag-takalani-tshivhase","tag-telkom","tag-tumi-ntsele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108004,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107998\/revisions\/108004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}