Gauteng Enterprise Propeller CEO Saki Zamxaka says legal processes are currently underway to hold accountable Amahlo Consulting Services (ACS), following its failure to create 75 000 employment opportunities for unemployed youth.
The consultancy firm, hired by the Gauteng provincial government in 2016, is now ordered by the Gauteng High Court to repay R52 million after failing to deliver.
Despite receiving just over R59 million between 2016 and 2019, ACS managed to create only 142 opportunities, leading to legal action.
Zamxaka says, “Unfortunately, legal processes tend to take a little bit longer than one would have imagined. So now that the judgment has been done to recover what monies are due to be paid. The investigations and the subsequent judgment determined that some of the commitments rendered into were outside of the authority framework and they shouldn’t have been approved by management at the time. They should have gone to the Board; those are internal processes that were not followed.”
The contract awarded to ACS, which bypassed the tender process, was part of the Gauteng government’s Vuthela project aimed at creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for unemployed youth.
GEP has halted the process of providing loans until October:
