Days of Zondo: EOH’s Mackay doled it out to Zizi Kodwa and other ANC officials

Evidence presented to the Zondo commission on EOH's behalf on Wednesday showed frequent payments from Jehan Mackay, then an executive at the tech giant, to at least three ANC functionaries.

The evidence was presented by Steven Powell, head of law firm ENSafrica’s forensics division, which had conducted a wide-ranging investigation at EOH when its new management wanted to clean up.

Mackay and those implicated by his payments have not yet had the opportunity to challenge the evidence.

ENS identified suspicious payments allegedly destined for Zizi Kodwa, the current deputy minister of state security, between May 2015 and February 2016.

At the time Kodwa was the ANC’s spokesperson. Summaries of bank statements in the ENS submission show eight payments totalling R375 000 seemingly destined for Kodwa. The recipient is alternatively given as “NG Kodwa” (his initials), “Zizi Kodwa” and “Zizi”.

This would not be a first for Kodwa. In September, City Press reported that he had received payments totalling R180 000 between 2015 and 2017 from Edwin Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting, the firm at the centre of the Free State asbestos corruption prosecution.

Another serial recipient of payments from Mackay appears to be Siyabulela Sintwa, Jacob Zuma’s former personal assistant. According to the summarised bank statements, “Siyabulela Sintwa” and “SG Sintwa” (his initials) were paid R291 600 between September 2015 and January 2017.

There was also a R500 000 “loan” paid in June 2017 to “MR Nkabinde”. This appears to be Mzwakhe Reginald Nkabinde, then the treasurer-general of the ANC Youth League. 

Nkabinde was considered close to then water and sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane, whose department was a key customer for EOH.

Details of these payments have been given to the Hawks, ENS noted.

Powell told the commission that these payments were made from Mackay’s personal account, but seemed to have  originated from the Mackay family company, Tactical Software Solutions (TSS).

“Very often the payments seemed to follow a deposit of a similar amount or larger amount [into Mackay’s personal account] just prior to the transfer to the individuals that I have listed and many of those were referenced as transfers from TSS,” Powell said.

TSS, the Mackay company that seemingly funded these transfers to ANC functionaries, had previously sold a subsidiary called TSS Managed Services to EOH in 2011. 

That subsidiary subsequently became central to EOH’s public sector arm EOH Mthombo, the part of the company that is alleged to have been at the heart of fraud and corruption at EOH. It was also this transaction that saw Mackay become an EOH executive. DM