By Johnathan Paoli
Suspended human resources head Linda Gxasheka has acknowledged that a controversial R230-million skills development tender awarded by the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality was riddled with warning signs that should have triggered disqualification during adjudication.
Testifying on Friday before the Madlanga Commission, Gxasheka agreed under questioning that numerous anomalies linked to service provider Buena Vista Learning Academy, whose sole director is Tsakani Baloyi, the partner of businessman Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala, ought to have been detected by the municipality’s bid committees.
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“Chair, I fully agree that these are red flags. The timing of the directorship change, the registration on the Central Supplier Database just days before submission, the BEE certificate and bank account opened at the eleventh hour; all of that should have been picked up during the evaluation process. On the face of it, it does look irregular, and it does raise serious concerns that ought to have been interrogated,” she said.
Chief evidence leader Matthew Chaskalson led Gxasheka through company records showing that Baloyi became the sole director of Buena Vista on 26 June 2023; a week after the bid was advertised and less than a month before submissions closed.
At the time, the company was still registered as Mokoko Grill, a shisanyama business, only changing its name to Buena Vista Learning Academy days before the tender deadline.
The commission further heard that Buena Vista submitted a total bid price of just R66,500 for seven training programmes, yet municipal records show payments of more than R3.48 million between July 2024 and September 2025.
Gxasheka told the commission that while HR did not control a training budget, payments were made through departmental allocations using grants from the Construction Education and Training Authority.
“Technically you can say the city paid,” she said, explaining that departments accessed SETA funds via skills development levies.
Further red flags emerged from the Central Supplier Database (CSD), which showed Buena Vista registered only four days before submitting its bid.
Its BEE certificate and bank account were also obtained days before submission.
“All of these are red flags that ought to have been picked up,” Chaskalson said.
The commission heard that while Buena Vista claimed a turnover of R35 million in its bid, CSD records reflected turnover of R10 million or less and indicated the company was not VAT-registered.
Compounding the issue, the company’s core industry was listed as construction, not training, meaning a VAT registration would have been mandatory at that turnover level.
Chaskalson further detailed that none of the accreditation letters submitted with the bid were issued to Buena Vista Learning Academy.
Instead, they belonged to partner entities such as CTC College and Ntaida Cleaning, with one accreditation issued to a similarly named but separate company months before Buena Vista’s name change.
Gxasheka accepted that, on the face of the documents, Buena Vista had no accreditation of its own and would not have qualified without a properly declared joint venture.
“From a layman’s point of view, all this looks very strange,” she said.
Gxasheka maintained that she did not sit on the bid specification, evaluation or adjudication committees, and that technical responsibility lay with the strategic HR and training division.
She also said the city manager played no role in advertising the tender.
Separately, she defended the suspension of officials linked to the tender, telling the commission that suspension was “not punitive” but intended to allow investigations to proceed without interference.
The commission continues hearing evidence into procurement failures, governance breakdowns and alleged corruption within the Ekurhuleni metro after lunch.