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PostPosted: 30 Aug 2014, 04:14 
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Joined: 23 Dec 2006, 06:12
Posts: 765
Location: Gauteng, South Africa
I reckon that this strategic transport topic that we started to touch on in the thread "are we at war (DRC)" warrants a new thread.

The media is raising some serious rumours about tender bungling by the leadership of the SANDF. Apart from the Beeld article mentioned in the said thread, the following articles from the newspaper Mail&Guardian refers:

http://mg.co.za/article/2014-08-28-sa-soldiers-died-in-car-while-generals-dithered

Quote:
From midnight Saturday to Sunday morning in the early hours … we tried to locate the registered companies to indicate the availability of [an] AN-124. Avient was the only company indicating at that stage of the night non-availability … The phones of the other charter companies were just ringing.

“Due to the urgency … Ultimate Heli … was also contacted and within 30 minutes confirm[ed] availability for Sunday night March 24 2013, landing at AFB Waterkloof.” The plan was for the plane to load and leave at first light on the Monday morning.

Intervention
After receiving verbal approval, Ultimate Heli began moving the aircraft from the West Indies to within a few flying hours of Pretoria.

According to Damon, it was on Sunday afternoon that the SANDF’s director of logistics procurement, Brigadier General Thithuwi Mulaudzi, intervened.

Damon writes: “During the day, around 3pm, Lt Col [David] Engela [who works in the procurement division] call[ed] to say Brig Gen Mulaudzi instructed them to go out on tender again to the same companies although they [had] already indicate[d] nonavailability, for a second time.

“According to Lt Col Engela, the second time, later that afternoon, Y&P indicated that they can provide an AN-124, after the same day earlier they indicate[d] nonavailability.”

Damon alleges that after a letter of authority was issued to Y&P the company indicated that the AN-124 would only be available later in the week, not on the day as approved.

By that stage the Ultimate Heli contract had been cancelled, though the SANDF would still be presented with a bill for having placed the aircraft on standby.

Six-day wait
In a separate report, director of joint operational support Brigadier General Tersia Jacobs says Y&P was not in a position to fly on the Monday and only delivered the vehicles six days later, on Saturday March 30.

She notes: “During the week all SANDF troops were moved from the base to the airport, rebel fighting continued. Most of our troops feared for their lives, even while they were next to the runway. A civilian company was greedy enough to tender for the job, [but] could not deliver against the operational target date.”

She added that, even when informed that the company did not have a plane available to fulfil the contract on time, “Mulaudzi preferred to ignore the information at hand”. She said she had asked the chief of logistics to launch an investigation – a demand repeated in letters by other senior SANDF officers, including Major General William Nkonyeni and Damon.


http://mg.co.za/article/2014-08-28-bangui-bunglers-score-big

The following extracts from the last article are pertinent:

Quote:
The aircraft brokering company that failed South African soldiers during the battle of Bangui – among other transgressions – has since landed more than R200-million of business from the South African National Defence Force.

A tender list compiled for ama­Bhungane shows that between April last year and June this year Y&P Logistics received contracts worth R209-million – three times the combined value of business granted to seven other approved bidders.


Y&P, which seems to operate from a private house in Midrand, was registered in 2003 as a clearing and forwarding operation responsible for clearing goods through customs.

It has also taken to supplying transport aircraft for the SANDF, which it brokers from charter companies.

It is unclear why the company appears to enjoy such marked SANDF favour. One of its members, Devi Padayachy, is a former employee of an Armscor subsidiary. The other director is her husband, Thavaseelen Padayachy.

The memo signed by Brigadier General Jacobs notes that in April last year, a month after the battle of Bangui, Y&P entertained SANDF members at a function near Pretoria.


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Last edited by koffiepit on 30 Aug 2014, 04:22, edited 1 time in total.

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