'While people lost jobs, he bought luxury cars’: SA weighs in on Hamilton Ndlovu ordered to repay R158m

Flamboyant businessman Hamilton Ndlovu is again dominating calls for tough action against corrupt individuals who allegedly benefited from scoring multimillion-rand personal protective equipment (PPE) tenders at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This comes as the Special Tribunal ordered Ndlovu to repay R158m to the state. 

The Special Tribunal found tenders worth R172m awarded to the controversial businessman and companies linked to him by the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) were unlawful and invalid. 

The Tribunal urged the NHLS to put Ndlovu, his companies and individuals linked to it on the database of restricted suppliers.

“The NHLS is urged to invoke section 15 of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act to list the fourth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th respondents, their directors and shareholders and Luiborn Dorn Ndlovu in his capacity as a director in the 14th respondent on the database of restricted supplies,” states the ruling.

The Tribunal found Ndlovu used fronting companies of which he was the director, and Feliham, of which his wife was the director, to procure PPE supplies to the NHLS despite having no experience in PPE supplies. 

It said NHLS officials bent the rules to favour the fronting companies. 

As reactions poured in on social media, a video of Ndlovu flaunting his luxury cars, including three Porsches, a Jeep and a Lamborghini Urus SUV, resurfaced.

“Hamilton Ndlovu is a disappointment. He actually needs to go to jail too for stupidity because at the height of Covid-19 while people lost jobs, he bought luxury cars,” said one user.