BEE director who lives in a hut

Every month, Africa Dube receives a blank cheque book which he is instructed to sign.

He is also expected to put his signature on all documents when his company is applying for municipal tenders.

He does not really know, nor understand, how his company conducts business but he has been rewarded with a car and a new house for his troubles. And in the office, all he does every day is play computer games.

The Mayville man's fortunes changed when he was "promoted" from driver to director and his monthly salary was upped from R2 000 to R5 000 in 2003 - and then R6 000 this year.

Dube, who lives in a two-room mud house in an informal settlement in Mayville, was told that he would have a 100 percent stake in the multimillion-rand Durban information technology company but he told The Mercury in an interview on Tuesday that he is a director "in name only" and is "not involved in the day-to-day running of the business".

This information is backed up in a press statement issued by the eThekwini Municipality after the completion of an investigation into companies who have received tenders on the basis of their empowerment credentials.

The statement, issued by City Manager Mike Sutcliffe, stated that Dube, through a company known as Collaboration and Knowledge Business Systems (CKB), was a black-owned front for Corporate Network Systems (CNS).

CKB, which provides paperless document solutions, has secured several contracts on the basis of its empowerment credentials, including a recent contract with the eThekwini Municipality worth R5-million for the first phase of a possible three-year project.

The city has responded by terminating its existing contracts and business relationship with CKB.

The investigation into fronting has prompted the city to improve its systems to ensure compliance by companies which have received council business based on their black economic empowerment credentials.

The city initiated the investigation after complaints that several Durban businesses, especially at the uShaka Marine World, had used black people as fronts in order to obtain contracts on the strength of their empowerment credentials.

It all started four years ago when CKB Sales Manager Chris Cleator informed Dube that he was going to be a co-director of a new company called CKB.

But Dube's excitement was short-lived when his salary never changed and he continued to work as a driver until 2003.

Dube said in an interview that although it had been promised to him, he only realised that he was a 100 percent owner of CKB when an article had appeared in The Mercury's Business Reportin June this year.

After the publication of the article, Dube was informed that he would receive an office, a salary increase and would be trained to take an active role in CKB.

While CKB is building Dube a house for R120 000 in Amanzimtoti, he is angry that he is still not playing an active role as a director of the company.

"Every day I sit in my office doing nothing except playing computer games. I am not getting any training from the company because they said it was expensive. My only responsibility is to sign a blank cheque book which they take away for their use. I also sign documents called tenders without reading its contents and I don't get any feedback if they are successful or not," said Dube.

Dube is now demanding justice.

"I have been used and I want them to be exposed for what they are doing to me," he said.