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BUSINESS MAVERICK
AMABHUNGANE
MEET THE NAICKERS: THE FAMILY CASHING IN ON GOVERNMENT DYSFUNCTION
(Photos: Felix Dlangamandla | Simon Dawson / Bloomberg via Getty Images |
https://www.cat.com/)
By Susan Comrie for amaBhungane
Follow Following
11 Sep 2023
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THE NAICKER FAMILY BUILT A MULTIBILLION-RAND EMPIRE RENTING WATER TANKERS AND
YELLOW PLANT TO GOVERNMENT. BITTER FAMILY FEUDS AND ALLEGATIONS OF COLLUSION
THREATEN TO BRING THEM CRASHING DOWN.
Listen to this article
0:00 / 34:26
1X
BeyondWords
* The Naicker family has made billions leasing water tankers and yellow plant
to government, despite being indicted for collusion in 2015.
* It has taken eight years to bring the case to the Competition Tribunal
despite one of the implicated directors admitting to collusion and agreeing
to testify against the family.
* In March, Aqua Transport and Plant Hire received part of a R4.7-billion
contract to upgrade the N3, even though its directors are on trial for
corruption. In April, X-Moor Transport got an interdict to stop National
Treasury from blacklisting the company from government contracts for 10
years.
Every year, government spends billions of rands hiring heavy machinery from
private companies.
Front-end-loaders and bulldozers – so-called “yellow plant” – help keep the
lights on at Eskom, the ports open at Transnet, and sewerage systems pumping,
while water tankers offer the only lifeline when water infrastructure collapses.
One family has benefited more than most from these contracts: the Naickers from
Durban.
Aqua Transport and Plant Hire, run by one arm of the Naicker family, has the
largest fleet of water tankers in the southern hemisphere, while X-moor
Transport, run by the other, has major contracts with Eskom, Transnet and
PetroSA.
But in March, National Treasury threatened to close the tap and blacklist part
of the family and their companies from doing business with the state for the
next 10 years.
This “sounds the death knell for X-moor”, director Alvin Naicker told the
Gauteng Division of the High Court in an affidavit, adding: “X-moor currently
has over one hundred live contracts – for the provision of services to various
municipalities and other State-Owned Entities – throughout the country.”
The decision stems from a forensic investigation into Johannesburg Water’s
lucrative water tanker contracts, which – as the city’s taps ran dry – ballooned
to R90-million in 2022.
According to Johannesburg Water, X-Moor and a related company engaged in
“undesirable conduct” and “collusive bidding practices”.
X-Moor is challenging the report, and in April obtained an interdict to keep
Treasury and its blacklist at bay.
But the Naickers’ empire is facing threats from other quarters.
In September last year, Aqua’s directors were arrested on charges of fraud,
theft and corruption relating to a 2012 tender with the KwaZulu-Natal Department
of Roads and Transport.
And in November this year, X-Moor will appear before the Competition Tribunal to
answer long-standing allegations of collusion.
The Competition Commission, which is tasked with investigating and prosecuting
collusion, indicted X-Moor, Aqua and two related companies in 2015, over a
R342-million tender for Johannesburg’s waste management company, Pikitup.
In 2018, Lillian Naicker – Alvin Naicker’s sister – pleaded guilty and agreed to
testify against her brothers.
Unperturbed, the Naickers continued taking billions from government contracts,
which have funded lavish family compounds in Kloof and Westville, and a fleet of
luxury cars, including a Rolls Royce Ghost, a Lamborghini Urus and two Ferraris.
WARRING DUOPOLY
There are, in fact, two factions of the Naicker family: brothers Alvin and
Inderan Naicker who control X-moor; and their cousins, Donovan and Kevin, who
control Aqua. In simple terms: the X-Moor Naickers from Kloof and the Aqua
Naickers from Westville.
“The current Naicker family origins can be taken back to identical twin sisters
who married twin brothers,” Doris Dondur, an accountant working for Pikitup,
explained when questions about the Naickers were raised during the 2012 tender.
According to Dondur, who got the family history “directly from the MD of Aqua
Transport”: “The two brothers started their waste management business, in
Durban, during the 1960s. During the 1990s… the cousins, who were at that point
responsible for the running of the businesses, then had different business
philosophies and their paths diverged.”
Since then, the rivalry has grown. The X-Moor and the Aqua Naickers still work
together when it suits them, but they have also traded allegations of corruption
and legal threats.
In other words, not so much a monopoly as a warring duopoly.
“The… companies, who are the only… real players in the industry, are fierce
competitors and, given their ongoing ‘family feuds’, are unlikely to collude or
even collaborate with one another when compiling bids,” Dondor, the accountant,
concluded.
This view – that the two factions of the Naicker families are locked in a bitter
war – was shared by most sources amaBhungane spoke to. One, who requested
anonymity for fear of repercussions, went so far as to say that most government
investigations against the Naickers had been prompted by a tipoff from a rival
family member.
“The families are so hellbent on taking each other down they’re going to destroy
[themselves]. It’s self-destruction,” the source said.
For instance, when Pikitup asked Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Accounting to
investigate the Naickers, director Deon Wilson disclosed that another
state-owned entity had already investigated the family in 2010.
“[O]ne of the whistle-blowers… was a member of the Naicker family who appeared
aligned to… [X-Moor] and who had raised concerns regarding alleged
irregularities involving… Aqua.”
However, the rivalry between the X-Moor and Aqua Naickers did not rule out the
possibility of “collusive tendering… between the family members within the two
factions”, he added.
What the Competition Commission would later conclude was that both X-Moor and
Aqua had colluded – not with each other, but with smaller companies on their
side of the family divide.
DIVIDING UP ESKOM
The Naickers tend to dominate the industries in which they operate.
In 2016, Eskom awarded a R660-million tender to hire yellow plant to move coal
and dispose of ash at coal-fired power plants.
In isolation, it looked like a good deal: Eskom could spend roughly
R1.35-million to buy a second-hand front-end loader, or it could rent one for
R455/hour – a price that would include the salary of the operator (generally
earning R31/hour).
But Eskom wanted to rent 357 pieces of yellow plant, most running for 12 hours a
day, almost 365 days a year.
The front-end loader that would have cost Eskom R1.35-million to buy, would cost
R1.9-million to rent for a year, albeit without the costs of hiring the operator
and providing fuel, maintenance and insurance.
Out of the 16 companies appointed on this one-year contract, at least seven were
connected to the broader Naicker family and would gobble up 90% of the
R660-million.
The lion’s share would go to X-Moor (R242-million) and Aqua (R238-million).
But smaller contracts worth another R106-million would go to companies
controlled by family members on the Aqua side:
* R39-million would go to Midmar Plant Hire owned by Kevin and Donovan’s
74-year-old mother Salosh Naidu;
* R27-million would go to Ekene Investment belonging to Kevin’s 26-year-old
son, Aquin Naicker;
* R27-million would go to Sage Trans, owned by Kevin and Donovan’s sister
Vernie Naicker, and
* R13-million would go to Marlisha Transport, owned by their other sister,
Yvonne Naidoo.
We have seen no evidence to suggest the tender was compromised. But is it a
crime for family members – some living in the same house while running competing
companies – to bid on the same tenders?
COPY-CATS
“In broad terms, collusion… means cooperation by firms… which are supposed to
compete but instead, they decide to work together to give a false impression of
competition,” the Competition Commission’s spokesperson Siya Makunga explained.
The result: tenders are inflated, and government is conned into paying more for
goods and services.
Makunga added: “Familial relationships strengthen the possibility of collusion
given a free flow of information between family members. However, one still has
to have concrete evidence of collusion. You cannot sustain a prosecution simply
because people are related.”
Concrete evidence of collusion is hard to come by unless you are in the room
when a secret deal is struck.
With the construction industry, the Competition Commission knew that collusion
had taken place because Rocla, a subsidiary of Murray & Roberts, confessed to
fixing the price of pipes, culverts and manholes, which eventually led to 12 of
the major players confessing to an industry-wide cartel. With the life insurance
industry, the Commission had leaked emails showing how rival companies gave each
other access to internal pricing schedules.
But when the R342-million Pikitup tender was first referred to the Competition
Commission in 2012, investigators had little to go on.
There was the family connection between the Naicker companies: Waste Rite, the
company X-Moor was accused of colluding with, was run by Lillian Naicker, Alvin
and Inderan’s sister – in other words, both X-Moor and Waste Rite were run by
members of the X-Moor Naicker family.
And Midmar, the company Aqua was accused of colluding with, was run by Kevin and
Donovan’s mother, suggesting a parallel gambit amongst the Aqua Naickers.
There was also the pricing – X-Moor and Waste Rite’s were identical on some
items (on the X-Moor side) – and the fact that an Aqua document had been
included in Midmar’s bid (on the Aqua side).
But Gobodo Forensics had already considered these issues in 2012 and decided
there was “insufficient evidence to conclusively prove” collusion.
In September 2015, despite the apparent weakness of the evidence, the
Competition Commission charged both sets of Naicker companies with collusion:
Aqua and Midmar from the Aqua Naickers, and X-Moor and Waste Rite from the other
branch of the family.
“The collusion is alleged to have taken place in the form of a bilateral
agreement between Aqua and Midmar as well as a bilateral agreement between Waste
Rite and Crossmoor [X-Moor],” Kelebogile Modingoana, an inspector in the
Commission’s cartels division, wrote in an affidavit, adding that the Naicker
companies’ conduct was “egregious and a serious contravention of the Act”.
Aqua insists it was technically never charged with collusion, merely that its
case was referred to the Competition Tribunal, which effectively acts as a court
in collusion cases.
“We reiterate that these are just allegations of purported collusion and that
Aqua was never found guilty and/or charged for collusion by the Competition
Commission,” the company told us in a written response.
But Aqua is playing semantics: “Referral of a case… to the Competition Tribunal
is equivalent to being charged by the National Prosecuting Authority,” Makunga
explained.
“Referral is equivalent to indictment.”
CASHING IN
Initially, being indicted for collusion did little to slow down the Naicker
companies.
Throughout the country, Naicker-owned water tankers kept rolling over roads
built by Naicker companies, as Naicker-owned yellow plant kept the lights on at
Eskom, the ports open for Transnet and the sewerage systems afloat everywhere
else.
In 2016, the City of eThekwini awarded a R120-million water tanker contract to
Aqua, X-Moor, Midmar and Ekene. The fact that all the companies belonged to the
Naicker family – and that three of the four had just been charged with collusion
– did not deter officials.
The R660-million Eskom yellow plant tender soon followed, as did a R1.2-billion
Transnet contract which was awarded to X-Moor in 2017. Again, no one blinked.
In Johannesburg, contracts with Naicker-owned companies were rolled over by
officials who seemed incapable of awarding new tenders. A 2013 Johannesburg
Water contract that was initially meant to cost R74-million was extended 10
times and eventually grew to R494-million.
Each time the contract came to an end, officials would say the new tender was
not ready and beg for an extension: “The mechanical plant used under this
contract are essential as the plant is utilised when… repairing water pipe
bursts and sewer blockages… Not having this contract in place… will cause major
disruptions on service delivery,” a deviation request – one of many – read.
By June 2017, X-Moor’s order book stood at R4.8-billion, according to leaked
company records. But what the same documents reveal is that X-Moor’s business
was far more intertwined than the Competition Commission suspected.
INSIDE X-MOOR’S BOOKS
When X-Moor bids for contracts, you will often see two companies appear on the
bidders’ list: Amaphiko eJuba and Ethos Transport and Plant Hire.
At first glance, both appear to be independent: Amaphiko is owned by Sandra
Munsamy while Ethos is owned by Simone Pillay. Look closer though, and you will
soon discover that Sandra is Alvin and Inderan’s sister, while Simone is Alvin’s
daughter – in other words, both companies are controlled by members of the
extended X-Moor Naicker family.
Some of this information surfaced in 2019 when Munsamy was kidnapped as she was
driving to the X-Moor Naickers’ family compound in Westville. She was held for
five months before being rescued.
At the time, X-Moor’s sister company, Crossmoor Transport, was facing mounting
pressure from creditors. In a bid to stave off liquidation, Alvin Naicker told
the court that the company’s finances had been negatively impacted by the
kidnapping of Munsamy, the company’s chief financial officer.
What internal X-Moor records suggest is that both Sandra and Simone worked for
X-moor until at least 2018 – they held company email addresses, had phone
extensions at X-Moor’s Pinetown office, and had access to X-Moor’s finances –
while at the same time supposedly running rival companies and bidding alongside
X-Moor on government tenders.
Leaked records also suggest that X-Moor’s finance department drew up cashflow
projections for the two smaller companies, kept track of Amaphiko and Ethos’
earnings, and recorded the two companies’ tenders in X-Moor’s own order book.
“When creditors started closing in, X-Moor did two things,” the company insider
told us. “One, they moved business to Ethos, and two, they sent assets to Dubai
and set up a company there.”
By 2018, Ethos had orders of over R200-million, double its earnings from a year
earlier, according to X-Moor’s records. (Leaked records also confirm that X-Moor
began selling equipment to Alvin Naicker Equipment Machinery Rental LLC, based
in Dubai.)
When we contacted Simone Pillay, Alvin Naicker’s 33-year-old daughter, she told
us: “I run Ethos Transport as an independent entity.”
She invited us to send questions, adding: “This narrative is exhausting as it’s
the furthest thing from the truth.”
But after we sent questions, describing the evidence we had, she stopped
responding.
When we contacted X-Moor for an interview, we got a letter from its attorneys,
threatening to interdict us, report us to the Press Ombud, and sue amaBhungane
and its journalists.
We pointed out that threatening to sue us without hearing the allegations,
looked like intimidation. The attorneys relented and agreed to look at our
questions. In a response, they said:
“The questions posed to our client are already assumption-based and appear more
as cross-examination and interrogation as opposed to a real effort to
investigate and determine facts on an objective basis… It is clear to our client
that your questions and purported ‘research’ has yielded incorrect facts.”
They added: “Our client will not allow pending legal matters to become the
subject of media articles and an interrogation and will certainly not tolerate
nor submit itself to same.”
INSIDE AQUA’S OPERATIONS
Down the road at Aqua’s Westmead office, a similar story was playing out.
Like his cousins on the X-Moor side, Kevin Naicker from Aqua had set up a
business for his son. Shortly after turning 19, Aquin Naicker became the sole
member of Ekene Investments, which – like Aqua – specialised in leasing yellow
plant to government.
In the 2016 Eskom yellow plant tender, Ekene was paid R27-million to supply
rollers, excavators, tippers and water tankers to power stations Matla, Duvha,
Grootvlei, Lethabo and Komati.
We do not have access to Aqua’s internal records, so we have less insight into
how the two companies operate, but from what we have been told, Ekene eventually
became an issue between the two Aqua brothers, Kevin and Donovan.
“Ekene and Midmar” – the latter owned by their mother Salosh Naidu, the
matriarch on the Aqua side – “were only supposed to be there for cover quoting,
they were never intended to win tenders,” the company insider alleged.
“They were meant to be there to establish pricing, i.e. provide a higher price
so Aqua doesn’t look too expensive,” the company insider claimed, adding, “The
split between Kevin and Donovan started when Kevin started siphoning contracts
to Ekene.”
Aqua vehemently denies this: “These companies are not fronts for Aqua Transport.
Furthermore, there is no relationship between Aqua and these companies… Aqua
does not engage in cover quoting practices.”
Another technique, common when collusion is present, is bid suppression “in
which one or more companies agree… to withdraw a previously submitted bid so
that the designated winner’s bid will be accepted”, the Commission explained.
In September 2021, Eskom advertised a new tender to supply yellow plant to its
power stations. Seventy-five companies submitted bids for the R827-million
contract and 11 were selected, including X-Moor, Aqua and Ekene.
But according to a confidential report from Eskom’s Forensic and Anti-Corruption
division, Aqua accused Eskom of not following process when it accepted Aqua’s
R75-million bid to supply yellow plant to Majuba power station. When Aqua – run
by Kevin and Elaine Naicker – failed to accept Eskom’s letter of award, the
contract defaulted to the second-placed bidder, Ekene – run by their son.
It is worth pausing for a moment to reflect that for “bid suppression” to work,
Aqua would need to know that Ekene was next in line, and it is not clear how
Aqua would have known that.
Regardless, the result was that Eskom would now pay R97-million – R22-million
more – to rent the equipment from Ekene. What really stung was that Eskom would
later discover that some of the equipment Ekene provided at Majuba was owned by
Aqua.
In June this year, the forensic investigation concluded that “Ekene and Aqua
committed fraud by failing to disclose their relationship” and recommended that
Eskom “[r]eport suspicions of bid-rigging to the Competition Commission”.
Aqua insists there is nothing to report: “Aqua has not participated in any
collusive practices and as such nothing warrants a referral to the Competition
Commission.
“There is no provision in the tender document that deals with familial
relationships and even if such provision did exist, Aqua would not have been
aware if any of the entities had been participating in the bid.”
Aqua did, however, point out that the law puts it in a Catch-22 situation:
“The Competition [Act] is a double-edged sword. It precludes bidders from
discussing tenders. It follows from there that if Aqua became aware of any
competing entity that was tendering, that that itself would also be a collusive
practice.”
Although Ekene’s sole director, Aquin Naicker, appears to live with his parents,
Aqua insisted that they “would not have had any knowledge that Ekene was part of
the bidding process”.
The forensic report also recommended that Eskom “temporarily block” all its
contracts with Ekene, pending a review. Asked if this had happened, Eskom told
us that its policy was to only take action if Ekene was found guilty.
“Price-fixing and/or bid-rigging, if proven, is a contravention of the
Competition Act… for which a supplier may be suspended or de-registered from the
Eskom Supplier Database…
“Eskom reserves the right to take appropriate remedial steps against any
supplier found guilty of bid-rigging/ price fixing,” Eskom told us in a written
response, highlighting the words “if proven”.
FALLOUT BETWEEN THE AQUA BROTHERS
By this point, the two Aqua brothers were no longer on speaking terms. In
September 2021, they had signed an agreement to separate their interests: Kevin
and his wife Elaine would take Aqua Transport and Donovan would take Aqua Bulk.
But it was soon open warfare.
Details of their spectacular fallout emerged in the Gauteng Division of the High
Court after both accused the other of stealing 10 Mercedes-Benz waste compactor
trucks, culminating in the police seizing the trucks from Aqua Bulk without a
warrant on what Donovan Naicker described as “trumped-up charges”.
“Aqua Bulk contended that Aqua Transport had inveigled and ‘incentivised’
certain SAPS members in a ‘seemingly untoward manner including to unlawfully
seize the vehicles in question’,” Judge J Crutchfield wrote in her judgment.
Aqua Transport, she ruled, needed to hand back the vehicles.
Asked about the fallout and the allegations levelled against Aqua, Donovan
Naicker said: “I am no longer a director and shareholder of Aqua Transport &
Plant Hire… and I cannot comment on matters related to Aqua Transport & Plant
Hire due to an agreement signed at my exit.”
CONFESSIONS FROM AN X-MOOR INSIDER
Over at X-Moor, cracks were developing as well.
Initially, all four Naicker companies decided to fight the Competition
Commission’s charges. But in 2018, Lillian Naicker, the younger sister on the
X-Moor side, confessed.
“Waste Rite admits that it tendered collusively and fixed tender prices when
bidding for a Pikitup tender,” her November 2018 settlement agreement reads.
“[Collusion] is very difficult to prove, hence the Competition Commission
introduced the Corporate Leniency Policy to encourage any cartel member to come
forward and disclose or report the cartel in exchange for immunity from
prosecution,” the Commission’s Siya Makunga told us.
“Whether the Competition Commission settles with or without admission of
liability depends largely on the strength of evidence against the prosecuted
firm. If the evidence is stronger, the Commission insists on settlement with
admission of liability.”
Waste Rite agreed to pay a R225,690 fine and crucially agreed that “Ms Lillian
Naicker will assist the Commission in prosecuting the matter against [X-Moor]
Transport”.
The fact that Lillian agreed to testify against her brothers was “very
significant”, Makunga said.
“[T]he Competition Commission now has a witness that was part of the collusive
scheme who is able to testify about how the agreement to collude was reached and
implemented.”
SWITCHING OFF THE TAP FOR THE X-MOOR AND AQUA NAICKERS
In municipalities, the tide was turning against the Naickers as well.
In 2012, the family had been “the only… real players in the industry”, according
to the Pikitup accountant Doris Dondur. But a decade later, renting equipment to
government had become a lucrative opportunity and an easy form of patronage.
In his book, former Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter described how Tutuka’s
power station manager unearthed an Eskom-leased back actor – a common piece of
yellow plant – buried in a pile of ash.
“The only telltale sign was the tip of its hydraulic shovel sticking up out of
the ash like a scorpion’s tail. Eskom has been paying millions in rent for this
‘missing’ piece of equipment,” De Ruyter wrote.
In Parliament, the booming water tanker business was described as “the root
cause of all the corruption in the water and sanitation sector” by one member,
while another asked whether the department was “investigating organised crime or
a syndicate of water tanker providers who would go out of business” if water
infrastructure was repaired.
By 2022, the R120-million water tanker contract that the eThekwini municipality
had previously awarded to Aqua, X-Moor, Midmar and Ekene was up for renewal.
But in the six years that had passed, the need for clean water – and competition
to provide it – had become deadly.
In February 2022, Amos Ngcobo, a senior manager in the water unit, was shot and
killed in the municipality’s Springfield office. The hitmen have not been
arrested.
Two months later, Phumzile Qatha was shot and killed outside the city’s Ottawa
depot. Qatha, who had been in charge of allocating water tankers, had reportedly
raised concerns about her safety before she was killed. A suspect was arrested
but later released due to lack of evidence.
In November 2022, another official in the water unit, Sydney Qwabe, died after
being shot multiple times in his car. Qwabe had reportedly raised concerns that
he was being followed shortly before he was murdered. No one has been arrested
for his murder.
Amidst this lethal turf war, eThekwini announced the winning bidders for the
three-year, R90-million water tanker contract: the only Naicker-owned company to
make the cut was Ekene, run by the Aqua Naickers’ son.
THE ANC PIGGYBANK
X-Moor was apoplectic, and soon the old family rivalry re-emerged.
In early December, X-Moor successfully interdicted the municipality to prevent
it from proceeding with the tender. Soon afterwards, the city’s internal appeals
process concluded that both X-Moor and Aqua had been unfairly eliminated from
the tender because of unsubstantiated allegations of collusion.
When X-Moor learned that the municipality was paying the winning bidders anyway,
it filed a contempt of court application.
“I was advised by a whistle-blower… whose identity remains undisclosed for
purposes of their safety… that the municipality was acting in contravention of
the court order,” Inderan Naicker from the X-Moor Naickers told the
KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court.
“We got called [sic] Mayors office instruction to ensure payment is pushed
through as money in [sic] needed for the ANC conference,” the whistle-blower
allegedly told X-Moor in a letter quoted in the court papers.
Although Aqua had also lost out, X-Moor alleged that its family rivals were
still providing water tankers to the city. In a bid to prove this, X-Moor hired
a private investigator who spent months tailing water tankers around Durban,
recording licence plates and speaking to drivers.
“After six months of investigation, we have concluded that the water tankers are
running daily… We can also confirm that after interviewing some water tanker
drivers, they work from Aqua Transport and that they continued working after
Xmoor transport’s water tankers was stopped,” the private investigator would
conclude.
By this point, the city was reconsidering its reliance on private water tankers.
In March, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda instructed the city Integrity and
Investigations Unit to probe the outsourcing of water tankers to private
companies and gave the go-ahead to acquire 55 new water tankers to be owned and
operated by the city.
Soon afterwards, X-Moor agreed to withdraw its court challenge, on the
understanding that the municipality would re-run the contested water tanker
tender.
That is yet to happen, but last month, eThekwini awarded an interim one-year
contract to seven companies, including four Naicker-owned companies: Aqua,
X-Moor, Ethos (run by Simone Pillay, Alvin Naicker’s daughter on the X-Moor
side) and Blue Rand Empire (run by Cody Naicker, Inderhan Naicker’s 24-year-old
son, also on the X-Moor side).
There is nothing to suggest the contract was improperly awarded, but again, the
Naickers found themselves back on top.
BLACKLISTING
In Johannesburg, the Naickers were briefly frozen out as well.
In April 2021, the board of Johannesburg Water resolved to cut ties with four
Naicker-owned companies. Aqua, Aqua Bulk, X-Moor and Ubuntu Transport Services –
another company owned by Lillian Naicker – had all engaged in “undesirable
conduct in procurement processes within the City of Johannesburg Group”, an
internal memo alleged.
Although not spelt out in the memo, the decision stemmed from a Public Protector
investigation into the 2012 Pikitup tender. The investigation – which was
initiated under Thuli Madonsela and completed under Busisiwe Mkhwebane – found
that Pikitup had sufficient evidence of collusion to cut ties with the
Naicker-owned companies.
Doing business with the Naickers before they had been cleared by the Competition
Tribunal amounted to “improper conduct and maladministration” on Pikitup’s part,
the Public Protector concluded.
Next, Johannesburg Water hired an outside firm of forensic investigators to
review all its contracts with the Naicker companies.
D-Finitive Risk Management Services concluded that X-Moor, run by Alvin and
Inderan Naicker, and Ubuntu, run by their sister Lillian, had engaged in
“collusive behaviour” by bidding for the same tenders without disclosing that
the directors of the two companies had common business interests.
This was a technicality – and a far lower bar than “concrete evidence of
collusion” demanded by the Competition Commission – but it was enough, in
D-Finitive’s view, to act.
In February, Johannesburg Water asked National Treasury to blacklist X-Moor,
Ubuntu and their directors, and ban them from doing business with the state for
10 years.
Both X-Moor and Ubuntu are challenging the D-Finitive report, and in April
obtained an interim interdict that will, for now, keep them off Treasury’s
blacklist.
“If [X-Moor] is placed on the blacklist immediately, and the blacklist is
published… [X-Moor] will likely not survive long enough to clear its name. The
business… will be at an end without it having been afforded the basic right of
defending itself,” Alvin Naicker told the court.
BREAKING THE NAICKER EMPIRES
In November, the Competition Commission will finally get its day in court with
the X-Moor Naickers.
The case was meant to be heard in April last year but was postponed after both
the X-Moor and Aqua Naickers indicated they wanted to settle.
“The reason Aqua engaged into the settlement talks was because Aqua believes
this case has a nuisance value,” Aqua told us, adding that the settlement talks
were premised on Aqua not admitting guilt.
“The settlement discussion collapsed,” the Competition Commission confirmed,
“and it took time for us to get a new hearing date.” (Aqua’s hearing date is yet
to be confirmed.)
If the companies are found guilty – eight years after they were charged – they
will have to pay back 10% of their income from the past financial year.
They will not, however, face criminal charges: cartel conduct is a crime, but
only since the 2016 amendment to the Competition Act.
“[T]he amendment does not apply retrospectively,” the Commission confirmed. If
found guilty, “[o]nly the company will be fined.”
The bigger risk is being blacklisted by Treasury, which X-Moor still faces.
But despite State Capture and the daily reports of corruption, it is
astonishingly difficult to get blacklisted from doing business with the state.
Currently, there are just 177 directors and companies on Treasury’s list of
Restricted Suppliers and Tender Defaulters. The Guptas, for instance, have not
been blacklisted; nor has Bosasa.
And finally, there is the corruption case from the 2012 KwaZulu-Natal road
contracts.
According to the charge sheet, Aqua paid R174,000 to a consulting engineer on
the project who, in turn, inflated the number of hours Aqua could bill on the
project by R1.7-million.
If they are found guilty, the Aqua Naickers face 15 years in jail. But in the
interim, billions from government keep flowing to the company.
In March this year, Aqua, as part of a joint venture, was awarded a R4.7-billion
contract to upgrade a portion of the N3 highway between Westville and the
Paradise Road interchange over the next four-and-a-half years.
Asked why it had awarded a contract to a company whose directors were facing
corruption charges, Sanral told the Sowetan that charges alone were not enough
to disqualify a company from receiving government contracts.
Only a guilty verdict would put the Naickers out of business. DM
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* Alvin Naicker
* Amaphiko eJuba
* Aqua Transport and Plant Hire
* Competition Commission
* Donovan Naicker
* Ethos Transport and Plant Hire
* Inderan Naicker
* Kevin Naicker
* Lillian Naicker
* Susan Comrie
* X-Moor Transport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTS - PLEASE LOGIN IN ORDER TO COMMENT.
* mondlaneabraham says:
12 September 2023 at 06:12
There’s no country here,it’s all gone 😢
Log in to Reply
* Garth Kruger says:
12 September 2023 at 06:53
We are so much better off after 1994.
: )
Log in to Reply
* William Dryden says:
13 September 2023 at 12:39
No Garth we were much better off before 1994?
Log in to Reply
* Pet Bug says:
12 September 2023 at 07:09
The Aqua Naaiers seem more attractive.
Log in to Reply
* Hermann Funk says:
12 September 2023 at 08:10
They are not stupid. I am sure they have enough money in Dubai and at the
moment things become critical they will disappear and enjoy their ill-gotten
gains.
Log in to Reply
* Jennifer D says:
12 September 2023 at 08:16
This type of collusion has been happening for many, many years – it was just
not public and the colluders more sneaky. It was standard boardroom
practise/discussion who to bribe, price fix, tax avoidance etc. What has
changed is the accessibility of information.
Log in to Reply
* Confucious Says says:
12 September 2023 at 09:00
What’ s the saying? Grease in the one palm is worth two tenders in the..?
What?
Log in to Reply
* scrappy says:
12 September 2023 at 09:04
Very lengthy and well researched analysis!
However…here’s a question!
Who is the standout politician …the political godfather?
Log in to Reply
* firstgraham says:
12 September 2023 at 09:49
That my friend is the key question that needs to be answered. It takes two
to Tango!!
Log in to Reply
* mjhauptstellenbosch says:
12 September 2023 at 09:10
What this article decribes is a long line of family members who work hard,
almost day and night.
Maybe they slip up on the moral side sometimes,
like the rest of us!
But why not write articles of people who never work,
who deal in drugs and alcohol,
who are on SASSA,
who use NSFAS to its full extend to supplement their income?
Mention them by their names, addresses, places of work, etc
in the same way you are identifying hard-working Indians,
who work, as I said, day and night.
Log in to Reply
* Rob Martin says:
12 September 2023 at 09:54
You are joking, right???
Log in to Reply
* mjhauptstellenbosch says:
12 September 2023 at 10:50
No Rob, I am NOT joking.
Even if they are guilty of some corruption,
look on the positive side:
they are doing a LOT of good work.
The lesser evil would be to let them do their work,
and not run them down.
Again, why not identify the free-loaders in the same way?
Log in to Reply
* edwardmagala@gmail.com says:
12 September 2023 at 13:59
I disagree…the road to hell is paved with good intentons…both the spaza
shop burglar and the bank robber are both thieves…the one just takes it
to the extremes
Log in to Reply
* Ruby Delahunt says:
12 September 2023 at 13:53
“Maybe they slip up on the moral side sometimes, like the rest of us!”
Most of us do not slip up to the tune of billions of Rands, actually. And
in fact, most people’s moral standards generally rest on having compassion
for the poor people you call free-loaders, not for corrupt millionaires.
Log in to Reply
* Change is good sa says:
12 September 2023 at 09:37
From a Municipality point of view, do the Naickers actually deliver services
for these tenders, do they get measured and penalised for not completing on
time, do they actually do a good job. do they do all this legally. Apart from
collusion, they should be excluded from tenders if they do not deliver to the
contract stipulations. You can see this corruption all over Durban, the bus
service is another tender that does not deliver. The road repair (pot holes)
tenders are given to small companies (cadres) but they have no equipment and
do not know how to fix a road. The ANC are to blame for this Naicker family
domination. They never pay attention to detail and never actually run the
city. They think they can pitch up at the office and do nothing. Our vote is
our power, may the opposition win.
Log in to Reply
* Brian Doyle says:
12 September 2023 at 09:47
Obviously the ANC government does not want to blacklist companies where they
can financially benefit through their corrupt practices
Log in to Reply
* nirvanip@gmail.com says:
12 September 2023 at 09:54
Don’t know them, not related… just commenting: the property sector is just as
colluded from the real estate agents, managing agents, legal firms, service
providers etc. What’s the bigger agenda behind the name and shame? What other
sectors are in queue to be revealed to us as an absorbing audience?
Log in to Reply
* nina.bodisch says:
13 September 2023 at 08:31
Painstakingly thorough investigation by AmaBhungane. It’s exhausting to read
and easy to lose the plot. I just feel inclined to move on from this type of
news and I guess unless one is in auditing, forensics or the legal
profession, most readers will also just give up and move on to other news
articles. And yet, this is the very corruption that has been hollowing out
this country for what seems like over a decade already before our very noses!
Long live AmaBhungane and the free press in South Africa. I promise to
continue summonsing up the energy to read your articles from start to finish
and support the cause of the free press in SA. May corruption and malfeasance
never win!
Log in to Reply
* marlikyusuf@gmail.com says:
13 September 2023 at 15:26
All these heart wrenching investigated info will go for waste as SA police
are equally useless as the politicians and lined up in the pockets of these
thugs, and the same poor who don’t get services delivered will vote ANC how
sad
Log in to Reply
* roelf.pretorius says:
14 September 2023 at 23:30
Are they on the list of donors giving money to the ANC? And if they are not,
here is a challenge to ama-Bhungane: To find out if they don’t make donations
that are supposed to be declared but that is not.
Log in to Reply
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Google Analytics.UserID13 monthsThe cookie sets a unique anonymous ID for a
website visitor. This ID is used to continue to identify users across different
sessions and track their activities on the website. The data collected is used
for analysis.uvc1 year 1 monthThe cookie is set by addthis.com to determine the
usage of Addthis.com service.
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Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and
marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect
information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription__tbc2 yearsThis cookie is used for measuring the
efficiency of advertisement by registering data on visitors from multiple
website._cc_aud8 months 26 daysThe cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The purpose
of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form about
the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits,
average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These
data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location,
demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for
targeted advertising._cc_ccsessionThe cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net. The
purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous form
about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of visits,
average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded. These
data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical location,
demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for advertisers for
targeted advertising._cc_dc8 months 26 daysThe cookie is set by crwdcntrl.net.
The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information in an anonymous
form about the visitors of the website. The data collected include number of
visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages have been loaded.
These data are then used to segment audiences based on the geographical
location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content and for
advertisers for targeted advertising._cc_id8 months 26 daysThe cookie is set by
crwdcntrl.net. The purpose of the cookie is to collect statistical information
in an anonymous form about the visitors of the website. The data collected
include number of visits, average time spent on the website, and the what pages
have been loaded. These data are then used to segment audiences based on the
geographical location, demographic, and user interest provide relevant content
and for advertisers for targeted advertising._kuid_5 months 27 daysThe cookie is
set by Krux Digital under the domain krxd.net. The cookie stores a unique ID to
identify a returning user for the purpose of targeted advertising._rxuuid1
yearThe main purpose of this cookie is targeting, advertesing and effective
marketing. This cookie is used to set a unique ID to the visitors, which allow
third party advertisers to target the visitors with relevant advertisement up to
1 year.ANON_ID_old3 monthsThis cookie helps to categorise the users interest and
to create profiles in terms of resales of targeted marketing. This cookie is
used to collect user information such as what pages have been viewed on the
website for creating profiles.bscookie2 yearsThis cookie is a browser ID cookie
set by Linked share Buttons and ad tags.CMID1 yearThe cookie is set by
CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage behavior
for targeted advertising.CMPRO3 monthsThis cookie is set by Casalemedia and is
used for targeted advertisement purposes.CMPS3 monthsThis cookie is set by
Casalemedia and is used for targeted advertisement purposes.CMST1 dayThe cookie
is set by CasaleMedia. The cookie is used to collect information about the usage
behavior for targeted advertising.DSID1 hourThis cookie is setup by
doubleclick.net. This cookie is used by Google to make advertising more engaging
to users and are stored under doubleclick.net. It contains an encrypted unique
ID.google_push5 minutesThis cookie is set by the Bidswitch. This cookie is used
to collect statistical data related to the user website visit such as the number
of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been loaded.
This collected information is used to sort out the users based on demographics
and geographical locations inorder to serve them with relevant online
advertising.i1 yearThe purpose of the cookie is not known yet.id3 monthsThe main
purpose of this cookie is targeting and advertising. It is used to create a
profile of the user's interest and to show relevant ads on their site. This
Cookie is set by DoubleClick which is owned by Google.IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by
Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website
and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present
users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.IDSYNC1
yearThis cookie is used for advertising purposes.KADUSERCOOKIE3 monthsThe cookie
is set by pubmatic.com for identifying the visitors' website or device from
which they visit PubMatic's partners' website.KTPCACOOKIE1 dayThis cookie is set
by pubmatic.com for the purpose of checking if third-party cookies are enabled
on the user's website.ljt_reader1 yearThis is a Lijit Advertising Platform
cookie. The cookie is used for recognizing the browser or device when users
return to their site or one of their partner's site.loc1 year 1 monthThis cookie
is set by Addthis. This is a geolocation cookie to understand where the users
sharing the information are located.mc1 year 1 monthThis cookie is associated
with Quantserve to track anonymously how a user interact with the
website.mt_mop1 monthStores information about how the user uses the website such
as what pages have been loaded and any other advertisement before visiting the
website for the purpose of targeted advertisements.personalization_id2 yearsThis
cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this
social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for
tracking and targeting.suid_legacy1 yearThis cookie is used to collect
information on user preference and interactioin with the website campaign
content. This cookie is used for promoting events and products by the webiste
owners on CRM-campaign-platform.TDCPM1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFlare
service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is
used for targeted advertising.TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFlare service
to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for
targeted advertising.test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net.
The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports
cookies.tluid3 monthsThis cookie is set by the provider AdRoll.This cookie is
used to identify the visitor and to serve them with relevant ads by collecting
user behaviour from multiple websites.tuuid1 yearThis cookie is set by
.bidswitch.net. The cookies stores a unique ID for the purpose of the
determining what adverts the users have seen if you have visited any of the
advertisers website. The information is used for determining when and how often
users will see a certain banner.tuuid_lu1 yearThis cookie is set by
.bidswitch.net. The cookies stores a unique ID for the purpose of the
determining what adverts the users have seen if you have visited any of the
advertisers website. The information is used for determining when and how often
users will see a certain banner.uid5 months 27 daysThis cookie is used to
measure the number and behavior of the visitors to the website anonymously. The
data includes the number of visits, average duration of the visit on the
website, pages visited, etc. for the purpose of better understanding user
preferences for targeted advertisments.uuid1 year 27 daysTo optimize ad
relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites such as what pages
have been loaded.VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysThis cookie is set by
Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a
website.wfivefivec1 year 1 monthThe domain of this cookie is owned by Dataxu.
The main business activity of this cookie is targeting and advertising. This
cookie tracks the advertisement report which helps us to improve the marketing
activity.xbc2 yearsThis cookie is used for optmizing the advertisement on the
website more relevant by analysing the user behaviour and interaction with the
website.YSCsessionThis cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views
of embedded videos.
Others
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been
classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription__browsiSessionID30 minutesNo description
available.__browsiUID1 yearNo description available.__cflb23 hoursThis cookie is
used by Cloudflare for load balancing.__gpi1 year 24 daysNo
descriptionajs_group_idneverThis cookie is set by Segment.io. The purpose of the
cookie is currently not identified.blkbs6 days 23 hoursNo
descriptioncharitable_session1 dayNo description available.cookietestsessionNo
descriptiondebugneverNo description available.gCStest7 years 1 month 26 days 16
hoursNo descriptionmuc_ads2 yearsNo descriptionrevengine_browser_idsessionNo
descriptionrevengine-browser-tokensessionRevEngine Data Tool.rl_user_idneverNo
description available.tf_respondent_cc6 monthsNo descriptionUserMatchHistory1
monthLinkedin - Used to track visitors on multiple websites, in order to present
relevant advertisement based on the visitor's preferences.vic_loc_error10
minutesNo descriptionvicinity_id1 year 10 months 24 days 11 hoursVicinity
Advertising.
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