SA firm in Zim corruption scandal won R566m voter devices contract from IEC

Ren-Form, the Johannesburg-based firm at the centre of an ongoing corruption scandal in Zimbabwe, is also the supplier of voter management devices (VMDs) to South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Daily Maverick can reveal. 

The IEC is currently investigating why these devices did not perform optimally at many of the country’s voting stations during South Africa’s 29 May national elections.

In 2021, Ren-Form clinched a R566-million contract to supply 40,000 handheld VMDs to the IEC, at roughly R14,000 per device. 

Daily Maverick sought these details from the IEC soon after the national elections. Our interest in the contract stemmed from indications that Ren-Form’s devices contributed to long delays at scores of voting stations across the country. The IEC later told us that some of the apps loaded onto the devices may have been responsible for the devices’ tardiness, and that the tablets themselves were in good order. The IEC is still investigating the issue. 

The X-100 in use during the 2024 elections. (Photo: Supplied)

The devices, freshly procured in 2021, also failed to optimally perform in that year’s local government elections. In that instance, connectivity issues caused the problems, not the actual devices, the IEC has explained. 

Unbeknown to most South Africans (and to this reporter, until a report today by The Sentry and Open Secrets), Ren-Form has for the past month and a half been at the centre of a massive corruption scandal involving a $40-million (roughly R730-million) contract to supply biometric voter registration kits and related materials to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). 

Read more: South African company embroiled in R570m Zimbabwe corruption scandal

The matter was first exposed by The Newshawks, an independent media platform. Two days before South Africa’s general elections, The Newshawks revealed that Ren-Form, in its pursuit of the ZEC contract, had allegedly partnered with businessmen said to be close to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and officials in his administration. 

A photo posted to Wicknell Chivayo’s Instagram page in April 2024 shows him with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

A key figure identified by the news service is one Wicknell Chivayo, whose Instagram account speaks of a plush lifestyle and includes a picture of him shaking hands with Mnangagwa. Chivayo and other Zimbabwean businessmen allegedly acted as middlemen or agents for Ren-Form and may have inflated the prices of Ren-Form’s products by as much as 235%, reported The Newshawks.

There have also been allegations that questionable payments may have been made to government and ZEC officials.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is probing allegations of money laundering and abuse of office relating to the ZEC contract.

Jean-Pierre du Sart, Ren-Form's sales director, told Open Secrets and The Sentry that the allegations regarding the ZEC contract were all false. 

CEO Thomas du Sart responded as follows to queries sent to Ren-Form regarding both the Zimbabwe allegations and the IEC contract: "We hereby acknowledge receipt of your mail, and have forwarded same to our legal representatives. They were unfortunately tied up in court today, and were unable to reply by your deadline. They have promised to respond as soon as possible."

We will update our reporting once we've received a more comprehensive response from the company.

We asked the IEC for its response to media reports regarding its supplier's involvement in alleged corruption.

“The Electoral Commission notes the content of the article,” it stated. "While the allegations made in the article are serious, the Commission is not in a position to offer comment as it has no knowledge of the matters connected to the article. The matter relate to a procurement process in another jurisdiction.”

And does the IEC intend to engage with Ren-Form over the Zimbabwe contract?

“The Electoral Commission will consider its exposure, if any, should some of the matters raised by the article apply to it.”

Here is the IEC’s full response.

Ren-Form’s IEC deal

The information we sourced from the IEC showed that a close corporation (CC) called Ren-Form Litho in 2021 won the contract for supplying voter devices at a cost of R566.1-million. The company supplied 40,000 devices to be used at the IEC’s 23,292 voting stations.

The CC’s sole member is Thomas (Tommy) Michel du Sart. According to Ren-Form’s website, several other members of the Du Sart family hold senior positions within the Joburg-based business. 

Ren-Form's Tommy du Sart. (Photo: LinkedIn)

Ren-Form describes itself as a “integrated digital communication and printing company that provides clients with a complete range of print, technology, marketing and communications solutions and services”.

Ren-Form’s contract with the IEC was signed on 13 April 2021, one week before President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the local elections would be held in late October of that year. The date was later moved to 1 November.

According to the IEC, the new VMDs were used in the local elections to substitute the printed voters’ roll, “where voters are electronically flagged when they present themselves, in the same way that they are crossed off the voters’ roll”.

Only, things didn’t go quite that smoothly. At the Kommetjie Primary School, where this journalist voted in 2021, IEC officials expressly stated that the devices were not working properly. Voters experienced much of the same at voting stations all over the country.

Come the 2024 elections, the devices would again cause major problems, and the IEC took a snap decision to abandon them and instead asked elections officials to rely on the physical voters’ roll.

Printing firm Ren-Form. (Photo: Google images)

“At the time that a decision was taken to withdraw the Voters’ Roll Application on the VMD, it was reported that the VMDs were taking time to validate voters and thus leading to delays in the voting process. Given the fact that the Voters’ Roll Application on the VMD was not a legislative requirement, a decision was taken to withdraw it in voting stations where it presented challenges and to look into this challenge as part of the 2024 National and Provincial Elections debriefing process,” explained the IEC. 

The IEC’s debriefing process is ongoing, but in a recent interview with Daily Maverick the IEC’s deputy chief electoral officer, Mawethu Mosery, suggested that the apps loaded onto the devices may have caused the issues. 

He said the IEC’s business application unit was looking into the matter and would eventually report its findings.

Although the tender had been awarded to Ren-Form in 2021, procurement documents show that the IEC had been looking for a new electronic solution since at least 2017. 

An initial tender was cancelled in August 2017. The IEC explained that this had been due to “funding difficulties at the time”.

Ren-Form's top brass during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. From left: Jean-Pier du Sart (Ren-Form sales director), Tommy du Sart (Ren-Form CEO) and John Ginzanza (Ren-Form BDO). (Photo: Supplied)

Another round of bidding followed, but this too was cancelled in 2019 “on account of non-compliance”. According to the IEC, one or more of the bidders had failed to submit a fixed price, “which is a requirement in terms of the procurement prescripts for this purpose”. 

The tender process through which Ren-Form was eventually appointed did not run in accordance with standard contracting processes. 

Due to the failed outcome of the 2019 tender, the IEC sought approval from the National Treasury to cancel the previous bid so that it could instead run a restricted or closed tender. This meant the IEC would not advertise yet another new bid but would only consider those bids that had already been submitted in 2019, despite those bids' supposed shortcomings 

Treasury approved the request, paving the way for Ren-Form’s ultimate appointment. 

The IEC indicated that the model of the devices supplied by Ren-Form was the X-100. 

Cursory desktop research indicated that these devices are produced by Champtek, a Taiwanese company. DM