At the time, the trust mainly serviced the city’s army camps in Kimberley
SEBENZILE Sidney Dlodlo, 55, a former project manager at the Independent Development Trust (IDT), Northern Cape, was convicted and sentenced in the Barkly West Regional Court for corruption.
The Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team arrested Dlodlo on April 21, 2015, following corruption allegations where he extorted a bribe of R20 000 from a private contractor in exchange for tenders and accelerating the payment process for an outstanding balance from work reportedly completed by the IDT during 2013.
At the time of his arrest, Dlodlo was employed as a project manager at the IDT, a private entity responsible for delivering social infrastructure and social development programme management services on behalf of government.
At the time, the trust mainly serviced the city’s army camps in Kimberley. Work was contracted to private companies and there were four contractors on the institution’s database.
It was alleged that when projects became available, Dlodlo approached all four contractors on the database and promised them contracts in return for cash amounts, ranging from R5 000 to R15 000, that had to be paid to him.
He was arrested after one of the contractors, Delva Geroge Civil and General Construction, did not receive a “substantial outstanding payment” from IDT, after completing a contract to cut down trees and do maintenance at a city army camp.
After the owner of the company made several enquiries to Dlodlo relating to the outstanding payments, Dlodlo informed the owner that he had to pay him R60 000 so that he could make enquiries at the IDT head office and also ensure speedy payments. The owner agreed on an amount of R20 000.
The owner then reported the matter to the Hawks.
Dlodlo was convicted and sentenced to four years’ direct imprisonment for corruption in terms of Section 276 (1) i of the Criminal Procedure Act 51/1977.
