Fraud charges against tyre company
2008-09-11
LOCAL tyre giant, Kilotreads, is facing charges of fraud, as well as the loss of a multi-million rand tender, due to the alleged establishment of a fictitious BEE company. This stems from a R40 million tender which a subsidiary of Kilotreads Paarl, Thembe Tyres, received from the City of Cape Town, to supply their 6000 vehicles with new tyres and tubes. But it has come to light that Themba Tyres was just a front for Kilo- treads with one of their labourers, Frans West (68) as a director along with Hendrina Brandt, wife of director Giepie Brandt. Opposition tyre dealers who feel that Themba Tyres received the tender under false preten-ces are now taking the City of Cape Town, Themba Tyres and Kilotreads to the Cape High Court. According to court papers, West, who has been employed at Kilotreads Paarl for the past 42 years as driver and general worker, confirmed that he was a director of Themba Tyres, but had received nothing in return. During this time he had been asked to sign blank cheques and bank documents. He said that he did not know where the Themba Tyres’ workshop was and had never had anything to do with the daily running of the business. On the other hand, the managing director of Themba Tyres, Southey Grobbelaar, claims that his company was started in 2002 with the aim of empowering employees of Kilotreads. The City of Cape Town forensic investigation found that one of the members of the bid committee which awarded the tender to Themba Tyres, Martin Rademan, was a close friend of Grobbelaar and that Rademan had undercalculated the cost of the service by Themba Tyres by 117%. Themba Tyres and Kilotreads are both opposing the application which will be heard this week.
More
News
|
