The owner of New Boss Construction, Ezekiel Lushozi, found himself in trouble when he was convicted of fraud.
His matter was remanded to August 30 for sentencing.
Lushozi, a 50-year-old businessman, was on the run from the authorities when investigations against him and his company started; however, he was arrested while attempting to cross the border to Lesotho in 2022.
According to insiders who spoke to Sunday World at the Buffalo City municipality, Lushozi, who has a vast interest in property and construction industries, had tendered for the project where the municipality had earmarked to build RDP houses in the rural areas of East London.
The insiders said his company won the tender.
“Ezekiel got a tender to build houses, and when he had to start working, he applied for financial assistance from the National Urban Reconstruction and Housing Agency [Nurcha] so that he could start building houses as per the contract with the municipality,” said an official in the council.
“Ezekiel had an agreement with Nurcha that a controlled business account would be opened, so that when the municipality pays the money for the job done by New Boss, the lender would get its share to pay the debt of the advance funds that were given to Ezekiel.
“However, Ezekiel started being slippery and failed to pay Nurcha the money that is indebted to his company.”
Construction of low-cost houses
The Hawks in the Eastern Cape also corroborated the information from the insider on how Lushozi had defrauded the municipality.
“In 2010, the Buffalo City municipality’s human settlements in East London advertised a tender project to build low-cost houses in rural areas of Buffalo City.
“The tender was eventually awarded to New Boss Construction,” said Hawks spokesperson in the Eastern Cape, Warrant-Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana.
“Subsequently, the accused and his business entity applied for financial advance through Nurcha, and an agreement was concluded between the two companies that a controlled account be opened wherein the payment was to be made by BCM [the municipality].
“Moreover, their letter of agreement was attached to the contract submitted to BCM containing the said account number,” said Mhlakuvana.
Mhlakuvana added that the agreement that Lushozi’s company reached with Nurcha was that once the funds were paid by the municipality to New Boss Construction and Nurcha’s controlled account, the lender (Nurcha) would take its portion and pay the balance to Lushozi’s company; however, that did not happen as per the agreement, and that a complaint was made to the Hawks to investigate.
“An intensive investigation revealed that Lushozi misrepresented the agreement and made changes to company bank accounts without the knowledge of Nurcha,” said Mhlakuvana.
“Further investigations revealed that he instructed BCM to make payments to his company account.
“Moreover, he submitted invoices to induce the municipality to pay cash straight to his company.”
