{"id":294308,"date":"2019-01-20T07:34:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T05:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=294308"},"modified":"2019-01-20T07:34:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T05:34:31","slug":"top-anc-members-face-investigation-by-us-authorities-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/broadband\/294308\/top-anc-members-face-investigation-by-us-authorities-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Top ANC members face investigation by US authorities: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three senior ANC members are facing possible fraud charges after they scored millions of rands from a botched City of Johannesburg broadband project.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2019-01-20-anc-brass-named-in-us-fraud-probe\/\">Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, police are currently investigating public service and administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo, deputy defence and military veterans minister Kebby Maphatsoe, and former diplomat Lerema Kekana for their role in the project.<\/p>\n<p>The three ANC members were directors of BEE partner, CitiConnect Communications, which worked on the deal alongside the multinational telecommunications company Ericsson.<\/p>\n<p>Originally set to go live in 2013 at a cost of R600 million, legal fees and audits have resulted in the total cost of the Johannesburg broadband project rising to R1.7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>A report by Nexus Forensic Services and affidavits by city officials reportedly show that the project\u2019s bosses &#8216;bent over backwards&#8217; to accommodate Ericsson South Africa and how this later added millions to the original costs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Possible US involvement<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Times reports that\u00a0Johannesburg mayor, Herman Mashaba,\u00a0met with US officials to discuss the report on Tuesday (15 January).<\/p>\n<p>While US embassy spokesman Rob Mearkle declined to comment, Mashaba told the Sunday Times the US officials had undertaken to ascertain if US laws had been violated.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the paper, Dlodlo admitted to her role in the project, and said she had been led to believe &#8216;it would benefit Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Dlodlo also admitted that she made R3 million from selling shares in the company, but resigned from it when she joined parliament.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a lucrative deal which I wanted to be part of. It was not illegal,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong> Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/293688\/r100-million-government-school-robbed-less-than-a-week-after-opening\/\">R100 million government school robbed less than a week after opening<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three senior ANC members are facing possible fraud charges after they scored millions of rands from a botched City of Johannesburg broadband project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":249935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5553],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-294308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294310,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294308\/revisions\/294310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}