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"It is often so disheartening to get to grips with the extent to which justice and 'doing the right thing' have been permitted to be perverted in our time. Thankfully, there are people such as those at SAICFM who are stoically uncompromising in standing by the principles that make life worth living. As we hear the ugly details of the Selebi/Agliotti filth unfold in court, as we know we have been denied hearing the details of scores of other sorry corruptions of power from being heard and as you and I witness day after day, hour after hour how our so-called leaders squabble over the spoils of their positions, and devote their waking hours to dodging their responsibilities, one can be forgiven for dreaming the impossible dream that one day we will live in a true democracy, safe from tyranny by the haves over the have-nots and pray that over some distant horizon lies a rainbow we can share and of which we can be proud."
Michelle Williams and the Anti-Zuma cabal
I think it was Jeni who said people start shouting when they stop thinking.
Well lately people have started shouting and you will be interested to note I have in the past weeks been relegated to something loosely termed the “lunatic” fringe by the Board of SITA and the Mafia by Director Willie Meyer of the SAPS.
Both associations have merit in that I fear I may be the former and feel increasingly treated as the latter.
In July 2008 I received a call from ITWeb asking for comment regarding a story they ran concerning the abrupt resignation of SITA CEO Llewellyn Jones as a consequence of what was quoted as “ a rift between him and government CIO Michelle Williams, who also serves as deputy-chairman of the SITA board” – ITWeb 'Gatvol' Jones to leave after GovTech 29 Jul 2008.
The final straw in this rift was quoted as a sms message from Williams to Jones that went like this “CONFIDENTIAL: Hi llew, I hav had so many different versions on which company won bus process & why. I hav decided not to use gijima & wud like to award to praxis. Let me know what needs to b done & when to expedite. Rgds michelle”
Clumsy
My comment appeared on ITWeb on 31 Jul 2008 under the heading Govt to probe SITA tender allegations “Even if the initial criteria for evaluation were flawed, it should have been brought to the attention of the minister, who should have then called for an investigation. How did Williams decide that the first three bidders did not qualify under the flawed process, but the fourth company was acceptable?
This has the stench, no more or less, of a de facto coup by government over SITA.”
What I meant was not that this was a de facto coup by Government over SITA but actually someone in Government over SITA.
Now granted, I had just come out of a dentist appointment after a root canal and may just have been having a bad hair day and was unusually cranky but based on what was in the media that was my take.
What piqued my interest was a small nagging question that simply would not go away.
Why would the Government Chief Information Officer and Deputy Chair of the SITA Board try and pull off whatever they were trying to pull off so clumsily?
That they (the GCIO) were acting at the minimum strangely was undoubted.
I have tried to answer that one question for over a year now.
My first question regarding the strange manner, in which Williams proposed Praxis, was to ask, if Praxis won according to Williams’s obvious favour, then someone must have lost?
That someone as it turned out was GijimaAst.
Granted the contract was in rand value tiny by comparison R1 million odd, but the contract was to provide a roadmap for a multi billion rand process.
In Williams questioning the tender process that saw GijimaAst win the small bid, saying it was “flawed” she was saying that there were irregularities that ended up favouring Gijimast.
In short without directly doing so, she was accusing GijimaAst and agents within SITA of corrupt activities.
The issue for me was not whether she was or wasn’t right, the issue for me was why if the process was flawed did she recommend a little company out of four companies that tendered?
For someone in Michelle Williams’s position, the clumsiness with which she handled the situation was a huge red flag for me that made me look closely at what she did and try establishing what was motivating this ham handedness.
I noticed an entry in the press that suggested after Jones’s abrupt resignation “Fraser-Moleketi's siding with Williams has left most of the board members in a state of shock, and several, including chairman Thenjiwe Chikane, are allegedly considering stepping down. Chikane was reportedly “devastated” by the meeting, but could not be reached for comment today”.
It seems I was absolutely not alone in my surprise.
A very good man universally accepted within the trade and within SITA was hounded out with ruthless efficiency by Michelle Williams Deputy Chair on the Board of SITA and also Government Chief Information Officer?
That is a fact Llewellyn Jones made no bones about and is widely accepted.
What is also a fact is that the time Michelle Williams has spent on the Board of SITA has been marked by levels of dissent and chaos never witnessed in the entire short history of that troubled organisation
A de facto Coup
What we tend to ignore or forget is at the time it was also claimed in the media that “Williams is currently in the process of pushing evaluation criteria through the SITA board, which would give the DPSA final say over the evaluation and awarding of tenders.
Under these proposed criteria, it is alleged that the financial portion of a bid would be reduced from a 50% weighting to 30%, the technical portion would hold a 30% weighting, while the BEE weighting would increase from 10% to more than 30%.
Reports also stated that Williams proposed a new structure for SITA, under which the DPSA would appoint a COO for the agency, and she even put forward a DPSA official to fill the role .
Now if this doesn’t constitute an attempted coup then I am a lunatic? Oxford English Dictionary – Coup (overthrow, revolution, rebellion, take-over).
Let us also not forget that under this new plan put forward by Michelle Williams the following was also reported.
Furthermore, under this proposed structure, the agency would also appoint a chief procurement officer, removing procurement from the responsibilities of chief of regulatory affairs and procurement Peter Pedlar”.
Michelle Williams who currently claims a victimisation campaign against her by among others ITWeb, Peter Pedlar and myself was already lobbying to have Peter Pedlar lose his job in the name of “restructuring” at the time Jones resigned over a year ago and before my name or ITWeb’s was associated with the current scandal?
To the Board of SITA and the Minister Richard Baloyi, I am sorry but Michelle Williams does not have the power or where with all to come up with all of this by herself.
This level of machination and thinking had to have come from a carefully planned and orchestrated strategy involving more than just one person.
Yes this lunatic is suggesting a plot.
There are of course side issues, never dealt with in the media such as the allegation that “It is further alleged that Williams refused to agree to bonuses for SITA senior management, saying they were paid well enough already. This is despite SITA performing solidly in the last year, achieving a nett profit of R270 million.”
Now I can’t say whether this is or isn’t the truth but SITA certainly can answer that question and if it is true then I can think of lesser reasons to outrage and antagonise the SITA senior executive into quitting?
“In the meantime the State IT Agency (SITA) was thrown into turmoil by the resignation of four board members, as well as acting CEO Femke Pienaar – who was convinced to stay, for the time being, by public service and administration minister Richard Baloyi.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that is what I would and did in fact call a “de facto Coup attempt” by Government of SITA!
Under the circumstances it is astounding that Peter Pedlar has stuck it out this long but others haven’t.
Not only did his position come under unprovoked attack but so did his pocket?
It comes as absolutely no surprise now that Pedlar has had his contract cancelled and effectively had his services terminated.
This is something Michelle Williams personally set out to do the moment she stepped onto the SITA Board.
How Williams has managed to cause such chaos and get away with must be subject to some scrutiny.
Michelle Williams, Soraya Beukes and Travelgate
Questions that need to be asked are where does Michelle Williams derive her power from and what are her affiliations and relationships?
Other than being a member of the SACP I believe, we know all about Tswelopele Engineering but there are other companies she’s associated with that bear closer scrutiny.
Most notably are Bella M Ready Mix Concrete, Bella M Transport and Logistics, Business and Executive Destinations and Re A Tsena Capital (PTY) Ltd.
All three of these companies make for extremely interesting reading in their own rights.
Commencing with Business and Executive Destinations there is a “connection” to another travel company called Business and Executive Travel.
Business and Executive Travel's Soraya Beukes wrote the following i n a letter to now President Jacob Zuma - dated June 25 2003 - Beukes says: "We (the black travel agencies implicated) are all in possession of documents where services were delivered to particularly the ruling party members. All our attempts to avoid incriminating and embarrassing those members, has been met with distain (sic).
"The alleged discrepancies are easily resolved, but not without embarrassment to the ruling party as most of their members are implicated.
"Due to these reasons we have avoided taking legal action. As this matter is very sensitive and the integrity of parliament will be seriously damaged in the interim, we are seeking an audience with political heads on this matter as a matter of utmost urgency!!!
"None of our businesses will survive pass (sic) Friday and the liquidators will have a field day uncovering a Hornet's Nest."
The courts heard that the Scorpions had interviewed 19 MPs. Some had claimed ignorance, while some blamed Beukes for luring them into the scam.
The state also alleged that Beukes had lied to the court about not having an income for the past 12 months.
Prosecutor Ben Avenandt handed in photocopies of cheques written out to Beukes by her daughter's business, Business and Executive Destinations . These included several cheques of R30 000 with the word "salary" as a description. Beukes's home loans and car had been paid out of another account.
Basically Michelle William’s company, Business and Executive Destinations , it seems at least on the face of it was paying Soraya Beukes’s salary.
Unless of course there are two Business and Executive Destinations registered at CIPRO in which case if I were Michelle Williams I would be complaining vociferously as this should not happen?
Soraya Beukes, a long time “lover” of Western Cape Premier Lynn Brown by own admission had enough dirt to bring down half of Parliament?
Perhaps herein lays to some degree the truth to the source of some of the influence and power wielded by Michelle Williams.
Michelle Williams and the Anti-Zuma SACP cabal
The story for me at least begins back in 2006 with the publishing of the following article Red flag target: Blade falls foul of critics Cape Argus 11 October 2006 and Alliance partners in self-destruct mode IOL 16 August 2006 followed by Is The Party Over? The Mercury July 16, 2007.
“ It is publicly known that SACP central committee members such as Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, Safety and Security Minister and SACP chairman Charles Nqakula, Provincial Minister Sydney Mufamadi, Madisha and deputy chairman Dipuo Mvelase are opposed to Nzimande's leadership.
While there are plans to purge these members, there are equally vicious plots to get rid of Nzimande at the SACP's congress in July next year, or even before that.
Others seen as Mbeki loyalists targeted to be outvoted in 2007 are deputy chairperson Dipuo Mvelase, deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin and national treasurer Phillip Dexter.
Nqakula is said to have been on a collision course with his central committee colleagues, including general secretary Blade Nzimande, over the Zuma trial.
He cautioned against radical resolutions by the party in their support for Zuma”.
The pivotal person in all these reports in relation to Michelle Williams and her shenanigans at SITA is Dipuo Mvelase.
Dipuo Mvelase replaced public service & administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi as deputy to SACP chairman and minister of safety & security Charles Nqakula.
Dipuo Mvelase, a Senior Manager in the NPA is listed as a Director and partner in a company called Re A Tsena Capital alongside none other than our own Michelle Williams.
Michelle Williams reported to public service & administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi prior to Polokwane.
It is conclusive that Williams could not have orchestrated the scheme exposed by me and that by her business partnerships, alliances and political affiliations she was a tool of the Mbeki camp in the pre-Polokwane succession battle to prevent President Zuma from coming to power.
Dirty tricks campaign
There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind anymore, that the ill-conceived sms sent by Michelle Williams, to Llewellyn Jones that was the straw that broke the back, was a deliberate attempt that has formed part of a broader pre-Polokwane campaign by members of the SACP loyal to ex-President Thabo Mbeki to attack the pro-Zuma faction.
It is public knowledge that Robert Gumede founder, owner and Chairman of GijimaAst is a staunch Zuma supporter and among the first high profile businessmen to support President Zuma.
For all the allegations of fraud and corruption lodged against GijimaAst and every other SITA supplier by Williams and others, this must be seen in this context as well and not only what one reads in the wider media.
There is in the referred reports and Williams close business relationships a distinct cabal who have had as there stated mission and objective done everything in their power to undermine, discredit and attack GijimaAst and by association Robert Gumede for the sole purpose of frustrating President Jacob Zuma’s ascension to the Presidency.
It explains why Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi – Mbeki Loyalist and Deputy Chair of the SACP supported Michelle Williams despite the massive upheaval and chaos being caused by Michelle Williams bizarre behaviour and actions at SITA as reflected in the statement that SITA Chair Thenjiwe Chikane was “devastated” by the abrupt resignation of Llewellyn Jones and ultimately also resigned paving the way for the return of none other than Zodwa Manase .
These Machiavellian machinations remain the principal reason behind the entire country’s ICT program being dogged by constant attack and counter attack disrupting service delivery and ICT rollout with huge sums spent on tender and evaluation processes only to be undermined and cancelled later.
It is why Home Affairs projects are constantly being frustrated among others and is merely in my view at least an extention of the abuse of office and power that came to dominate Mbeki-era politics.
The hook
There is a hook of course in all of this.
It would be much too farfetched to think that Michelle Williams is a deity incapable of bending the rules even just a little bit to score some action for herself on the side.
That sms had to conceal something deeper than just an objective assessment putting a little company called Praxis forward as preferred supplier.
Hell no.
Now this might be a rhetorical question but I wonder whether Bella M Ready Mix Concrete, Bella M Transport and Logistics or Bella M Power Solutions are trading?
Even so, I wonder how these companies have been funded. I would pay top dollar to take a peek at these companies’ books, starting with Bella M Ready Mix Concrete. As this company is a registered supplier at Green Point Stadium it must be supplying ready mix concrete in something bigger than bags?
Invoices and delivery notes will produce volumes of information on inventory?
So, in conclusion let me advise those that feel an appropriate comment to these revelations are that they are lunacy, everything put forward is from one or other public record and fact.
Michelle Williams is no more or less a relic of a broader political conspiracy to destroy the Presidents aspiration to reach higher office.
Nothing she says can be viewed as either objective or without a wider hidden agenda.
In my limited view and rather rudimentary understanding of politics, she is and I repeat my assertion conflicted, horribly so and must resign not only as SITA Deputy Chair, which she already recently has but as GCIO as well.
Kindest
Bart H
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At various times in my 55 years, I have been described as a Welsh Dutchman, a rockspider, a racist, a kafferboetie, a troublemaker, the best speaker in Africa, a hero, a shit, a leader, an angel, a demon-slayer, a drunk, a genius, the toughest consumer in Africa, scary, a pansy with presence, a patriot, a pathetic old pessimist, bloody dangerous, a management terrorist, a cor4porate activist and a friend. I think I like the last one best.
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