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GOVT BUYS E2.1M CAR FOR CHIEF JUSTICE

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MBABANE – The warning sounded by United States Ambassador Lisa Peterson about the country risking collapse because of its attachment to luxury, has clearly not been heeded.


Government is spending a cool E2.1 million on the purchase of a luxurious Mercedes Benz vehicle for Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala. The vehicle is the latest S-Class 400d model and it is being bought from Garden City Motors in Mbombela, South Africa. The latest acquisition will bring the number of the CJ’s official vehicles to three; the other two being a BMW 750i and a Mercedes Benz ML model.


This is happening at a time when government has admitted to being broke and has further suspended a number of capital projects due to the shortage of funds. Government has also, for the second consecutive year, tabled a 0.0 per cent salary increase offer to civil servants, mainly because it says there is no money. However, the country’s financial crisis has evidently not impacted the CJ.

This publication has it in authority that Washington Khumalo, the General Transport Manager at the Central Transport Administration (CTA), led a group of other officials to Mbombela on Friday to finalise the process of procuring the CJ’s vehicle. The CTA, which falls under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, is the one procuring the vehicle. It is the CTA’s core function to purchase, maintain and dispose of government vehicles and other related equipment, as well as to provide fuel for the government vehicles.


For the purchase of the CJ’s new plush vehicle, the CTA applied the much-opposed single source procurement method; hence the tender has been given to Garden City Motors.
Single source purchasing refers to purchases from one selected supplier, even though there are other suppliers that provide similar products.  On Friday, August 10, 2018, the tender was opened at the offices of the Tender Board at the Treasury Building in Mbabane, and it is then that Garden City Motors was identified as the one that would supply the CJ’s vehicle.


During the opening of the tender, the CTA was represented by Cynthia Dlamini (nee Maziya).
As per requirements, Garden City Motors submitted documents that included a trading licence, Form C, Form J, a tax clearance certificate from the South African Revenue Service (SARS), A Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) certificate, certificate of incorporation and seven copies of the tender document.


The amount quoted by Garden City Motors as a cost for the CJ’s deluxe new wheels is E2 144 742.55.
A review of the vehicle by cars guide.com states three likeable things about the car, these being that it has ‘plenty of luxury’, an ‘ultra refined engine’ and a guaranteed ‘super smooth drive’.


The vehicle’s standard kit includes leather trim, heated and cooled front seats, nappa leather-wrapped steering wheel, great new LED headlights and a new interior ambient lighting system, a panoramic sunroof, head-up display, dark brown ‘Eucalyptus’ trim, auto-dimming rear-view and side mirrors, a wireless phone charging system, keyless entry and push-button start, auto-closing doors and an electric boot lid. It also has electronically adjustable rear seats with memory function, side window blinds, a rear blind, rear climate control and 20-inch wheels.


The car is powered by a 2.9-litre in-line six-cylinder turbo-diesel that has been wicked up in this model.
Makhosini Mndawe, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, confirmed the CJ’s imminent new acquisition.

FULLY PAID FOR BY GOVT
Asked where the money for the CJ’s new car was coming from in light of government’s decision to suspend some projects because of lack of money, Mndawe said: “Like all motor vehicles bought by the government for use by its employees, they are fully paid for by the government.


“Likewise, the CJ’s vehicle will be paid for by the government in line with The Prescription of Salaries and Allowances of Judicial Officers Notice, 2016, which we are inclined to believe is still in forced as we are not aware that it has been kept in abeyance,” the PS responded. Regarding the use of the single source procurement method over the open tender process, Mndawe said the circumstances did not justify the use of competition because none of the local car dealership establishments supplied the required brand.


“The local suppliers would have approached the South African suppliers in order to fulfill the procurement, thus unnecessarily escalating costs for the procurement,” he said.
Further, he stated: “In short, government was merely curtailing the costs associated with the involvement of a middle man in the procurement by directly obtaining from the single supplier.” Bheki Bhembe, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, said he was aware of the tender for the new car as it passed through his office, but he was not well conversant with its specifics. “I cannot refute that the car is for the Chief Justice because I remember the tender. I think the purpose of this tender is to replace the CJ’s car, which has probably run its mile,” Bhembe said.

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