South Africa – Trade union federation Cosatu’s investment arm, Kopano ke Matla, plundered millions of rands from an employee provident fund. This was revealed in a secret Financial Services Board (FSB) report in October last year.

FSB investigators recommended then that the damning findings be reported to the South African Police Service so it can probe the “unusual and suspicious transactions and payments”.

Kopano Employee Benefits (KEB), one of the companies under Kopano ke Matla, has also been stripped of its licence to administer pension funds.

It was revealed at the time that the then already suspended Cosatu General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, was personally alerted to the level of the fraud going on as far back as 2010, but instead of acting on it, he sanctioned a R2 million settlement to make the matter go away! Over three years, more than R123-million was paid to the Kopano companies by Bosele Provident Fund – R56.3-million of which found its way to Nasieyah Basadien or her husband. Basadien was managing director of KEB.

The FSB report paints a startling picture of how officials plundered the retirement savings of 400000 former Bophuthatswana employees held by the Bosele provident fund.

The report at the time stated the following:

1) KEB had “no administration capability and materially failed to comply” with FSB rules

2) KEB’s appointment in 2007 as Bosele’s administrator was “flawed, irregular and suspicious”. At the time, it was “no more than a shell and did not employ any staff or even operate a banking account”;

3) KEB officials conspired with Kgomo and Thipa to “fabricate” minutes of a meeting in September 2007 supposedly authorising the appointment;

4) Kopano CEO Collin Matjila, who is also an Eskom board member, received R1.33-million in cash from the Bosele fund through his company Summerlane – payments he described as “personal commissions” when confronted by FSB inspectors;

5) In 2007, Bosele’s former administrator, Alexander Forbes, raised concerns about the large “set-up fees” paid to Kgomo by Bosele, which were then “quickly disbursed by means of cash cheques”. Bosele’s board of trustees promptly fired Alexander Forbes

6) Basadien’s husband was paid more than R26-million by KKMFS through a company called Datalab, ostensibly for work done for Bosele. He got another R27-million of Bosele’s money through another company, Southern Ambition

7) B-Direct, a company owned by Basadien and Matjila, was paid more than R2-million by Bosele, R1.16-million of which was paid back to KKMFS as “secondment charges”. The FSB believes that B-Direct’s sole purpose was to launder rewards, because it “could not find any evidence” it did any real business; Kgomo’s company, Westside Trading, was paid R90-million by Bosele, but the FSB could not find proof that there was any proper service delivery; and Basadien offered Kgomo a R7.2-million reward if he could find a way to increase the fees paid to KEB through a questionable “feasibility study”. Kopano’s fees were subsequently hiked by about 600%

The web of corruption started to unravel in 2009 when KEB’s then-acting CEO, S Woodman, informed the FSB pension fund registrar that KEB was running short of cash and did not have the funds to comply with the liquidity and professional indemnity requirements needed to keep its administration licence.

“Given the magnitude of fees paid by Bosele to KKMFS and KEB, it was peculiar that KEB was suffering from liquidity problems,” investigators said in the report.

The FSB then began probing Kopano’s companies – and Matjila fired Woodman for his trouble.

This is not the first time Kopano ke Matla has embarrassed Cosatu, the sole beneficiary of any money it makes. Last year, it emerged that despite Cosatu’s campaign against e-tolls, Kopano was invested in a company, Raubex, which built roads for the Gauteng freeway improvement project.

Front National is interested to know the following:

1) Is there a police investigation underway as was recommended in the report?

2) What has happened to the officials mentioned in the report?

3) How long is the ANC going to deny that their partners in the govern tri-party alliance of ANC, SACP and Cosatu have become more of a burden than an asset?

Jacob Zuma is no longer capable of keeping this sinking ship afloat. It is leaking from too many holes drilled in the hull by corruption, deceit and fraudulent activities lately. Guptagate, Nkandlagate, Showergate, Selebigate…and now Cosatugate!

Should the ruling party of a country be in a partnership with a bunch of crooks? Obviously not! But then again: Birds of a feather….as they say.

Daniel Lötter

South Africa Today – South Africa News