BUSINESSMAN Ignatius “Igo” Mpambani, who was gunned down last year, has been linked to a suspicious R255 million Free State human settlements contract.
The 37-year-old was killed in Sandton, Joburg in June last year.
At the time, police confirmed no cash had been taken from the scene, despite Mpambani earlier being seen at an ATM.
News24 found that Mpambani was the main beneficiary of a controversial contract to assess houses with asbestos roofs in the Free State. His company, Diamond Hill Trading 71, scored the contract in 2014.
Blackhead Consulting, led by businessman Edwin Sodi, took Diamond Hill to court in October, claiming Mpambani was supposed to share the money from the contract equally between the two companies but paid it straight into his own account.
Lawyer Sven Laurencik said Sodi denied having any knowledge of the circumstances around Mpambani’s death.
In 2015, the DA failed to bring an urgent court application against human settlements to stop payments to Blackhead.
Sources familiar with the matter claimed the department had not received value for the money paid to the companies.
The contract was also awarded without an open tender process being followed.
The department didn’t respond to News24’s queries about the matter.
Department spokesman Senne Bogatsu said News24 had to provide them with the documents and journalists had to obtain records by following the Promotion of Access to Information Act before they could be queried. Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said there had been no arrests relating to the death. – NEWS24
