The DA in Plettenberg Bay has allegedly given a company run by a resident in the area a R4.3 million short-term IT contract without tender, the Sunday Times reported.<\/p>\n
The contract was given to Dimension Data (Didata), a global IT company bought by Japan’s NTT for R22 billion last year. The company’s chairman was Jeremy Ord, a Plettenberg Bay resident.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Alliance took control of the Bitou municipality in May last year. After doing so, it fired IT supplier Lefatshe Technologies because its R10 million system didn’t work.<\/p>\n
The DA’s new mayor, Memory Booysen, said Ord then “offered to send a team down to Plett, at no cost, to evaluate our technology systems”, reported the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n
On December 11, the DA-led council requested a “deviation from the tender process” so it could award Didata the contract “to stabilise the IT environment at Bitou”.<\/p>\n
According to the newspaper Bitou manager Terry Giliomee, in a letter to Booysen dated December 12, didn’t receive other quotations because “there was not enough time”.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated August 30 Bitou officials gave Lefatshe 90 days notice and said their contract would come to an end on December 31.<\/p>\n
E-mails from DA councillor Johann Brummer to Bitou officials in December urged action to be taken to prevent problems at Plettenberg Bay’s Lookout restaurant.<\/p>\n
Brummer wrote, according to the Sunday Times, “Remember that Lookout is a Plett icon and hang-out of preference for some very powerful people, like Jeremy Ord and others who have supported us generously.”<\/p>\n
DA spokesman Jordan Hill-Lewis refused to confirm or deny if Ord had financially supported the party in the past. He said the DA would not engage in quid pro quo relationships with donors.<\/p>\n
Booysen said before Didata were hired, no mention was made of Ord being a “supporter” of the DA.<\/p>\n
ANC chief whip in Bitou, Phakie Mbali, said a supplier having to be appointed quickly was not a sufficient excuse for not putting the contract out to tender.<\/p>\n
He said while Didata’s assessment was for free, the municipality had found a way to pay the company R4.3 million anyway.<\/p>\n
Ord’s spokeswoman Hilary King said Ord would not comment on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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