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A recent reply to a parliamentary question posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), revealed that prominent Durban businessman Mbaheleni Ntuli's company Busile Investment, was paid R30 million by the Department of Public Works for services relating to the presidential inauguration of President Jacob Zuma on 9 May 2009. However, despite being paid this substantial sum of money, Busile Investment has yet to pay a number of the vendors it outsourced some of these services to. Ntuli is known to be a close friend of Jacob Zuma and has also been investigated by the special investigation unit of the Department of Social Development for payments made to him in the past. The DA will therefore be posing further parliamentary questions to the Department of Public Works asking why, in light of this investigation, he was awarded this tender and whether he will be awarded any tenders by the department in the future, in light of his non-payment of vendors. The Department of Public Works awarded Busile Investment a tender to render specific services including providing cutlery, glassware and crockery for the event, which Busile Investment then outsourced to Exclusive Hire in Johannesburg. Exclusive Hire is still waiting for an outstanding payment of R225 411.23 (now over R300 000 with interest) for services rendered five months ago and there are a number of other companies who are also reportedly in a similar position. Management of Exclusive Hire has informed the DA that the company is suffering major business constraints as a result, and without being paid this money owed to them, the company will be forced to cut down on their staff complement. Exclusive Hire has in the past supplied services for both former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mebki's inaugurations with no payment problems. Furthermore, even though it appears that the contract was awarded to Busile Investment as part of a regular tender process, the DA believes that questions should still be asked around the fact that this tender was awarded to a close friend of President Zuma. Mr Ntuli, owner of Busile Investment, is a long-time benefactor of Zuma. He has donated R550 000 to the Zuma Education Trust and has been involved in several fundraising efforts in support of Zuma. Ntuli was also previously investigated by the special investigation unit of the Department of Social Development due to the SA Social Security Agency paying him R4.3 million through Busile Investments to throw a Christmas party in Nkandla (Zuma's homestead) that was hosted by Zuma. For these reasons the DA will be posing the following question to the Minister of Public Works: With regard to his reply to oral question 84 on or around 16 September 2009 that revealed that Busile Investment was awarded a tender to render services for the presidential inauguration of President Jacob Zuma that took place on 9 May 2009; (1) Whether the fact that Busile Investment was being investigated by the special investigation unit of the Department of Social Development due to the SA Social Security Agency releasing R4.3 million to Busile Investment to throw a party in Nkandla to thank the residents for their support of Jacob Zuma was taken into consideration when deciding to award this tender to Busile Investment; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details and why was the tender awarded to Busile Investment; (2) Whether in light of the fact that Busile Investments has failed to pay outstanding amounts to companies that it outsourced services to for the inauguration including an outstanding amount of R225 411.23 and now over R300 000 with interest (document attached) to Event Hire the Department will award any tenders to Busile investments in the future; if so, why? The DA believes that government should firstly, not be awarding tenders to companies who have been investigated for payment irregularities in the past and secondly, who have a track record of not paying smaller companies to which they outsource these services to.