Metro's dud bullet-proof vests supplied by a company run by the children of the municipality's top brass

The mystery surrounding the Ekurhuleni metro police department's purchase of 300 bullet-proof vests remains unsolved.

A year after The Star reported on the controversial tender, there is still no explanation for how the EMPD's purchase was allegedly inflated by more than R600 000, whether proper tender procedures were followed and why a company run by the children of the municipality's top brass was allowed to be involved.

What is known is that the 300 vests finally delivered in late April had to be sent back to the supplier.

Now 190 have been returned by the supplier, after a "minor technical problem" was rectified, while the balance still need to be recalled from officers.

These were the figures given on Monday by spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago. The 190 returned vests have yet to be reissued to officers.

The EMPD has also finally confirmed that R1 024 290 was spent to purchase the vests - up from the initial quote of just under R400 000.

Kgasago said the reason for the spike was not available, but was not incurred by fixing the technical problem.

While Kgasago gave the assurance that everything had been done by the book, it is not clear whether a new tender was issued after the price shot up.

For small purchases, three quotations are sufficient to allow the municipality to buy the goods. As soon as the deal exceeds R500 000, a tender process becomes necessary.

It is unclear whether there were previous deals to supply vests.

The Star is in possession of an invoice issued to the EMPD on April 21 by the controversial company supplying the vests.

The acting EMPD chief, Mkhabela Sibeko (Robert McBride's stand-in, and deputy city manager of operations), has already admitted the company is run by his son and former mayor Duma Nkosi's daughter and a school friend.

But, he claimed, "the mayor and I had nothing to do with the tender process. Our children were awarded the contract on their own steam and on their own merit".

According to the company's registration, the owners are in their early 20s and the invoice gives a Gmail e-mail address - a free account offered by Google.

A well-placed source has told The Star that the bulletproof vests were recalled because they failed to protect officers and allowed bullets to penetrate them. Officers have refused to risk their lives and have rejected the vests.

But Kgasago said this was a "fallacy" and claimed "the technical problem had nothing to do with safety standards". Instead, the issue arose from the position of velcro straps.

Another document in The Star's possession is a record of the successful ballistic tests done by the SA Bureau of Standards on June 30 - two months after the vests were delivered.

The Star also has invoices for payments made by the metro to the company for female bullet-proof vests.

It is unclear whether this is for separate deals or the current one, before it was revised.