More than three years after a company that later donated R380,000 to the Patriotic Alliance (PA) was awarded a nearly R50 million Johannesburg social housing contract, the building it was contracted to convert into 40 flats was still a construction site.
The company, Downtown Spares CC, is owned by Mario Francis, while Marilise Francis, a board member of the city entity that awarded the contract, left the board during the same three-month period in which the contract was awarded.
That entity, the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco), fell under the city's human settlements portfolio, which at the time was headed by the PA's Anthea Leitch as member of the mayoral committee.
When IOL visited 57 Mentz Street in Booysens, south of the Johannesburg CBD, on Wednesday, the building was still far from finished.
The three-storey brick and concrete building is on a busy corner, with minibus taxis, buses and trucks passing by.
Many of the windows on the upper floors had no glass, while others were covered with plastic sheeting.
Green shade cloth covered the shopfronts on the ground floor.
Inside, the ground floor was still bare concrete, with no walls or fittings.
Rows of steel props held up the floor above, while workers in hard hats and reflective vests moved around the building.
Buckets of cement were scattered across the site.
Downtown Spares was appointed to convert the building, which previously had shops on the ground floor, into 40 social housing flats for Joshco, which provides affordable rental housing on behalf of the City of Johannesburg.
Joshco's response
Joshco's latest performance report, covering the period up to June 30 this year, showed that none of the 40 flats had been completed and that the project was only 45% complete.
By then, Joshco had spent R27.86m on the project in total, including professional fees, according to the report.
The report did not say how much of that money was paid to Downtown Spares.
The report cited the contractor's "lack of financial capacity" as one of the reasons for the project's delays.
In response to questions from IOL, Joshco confirmed that the construction works on its Booysens project were carried out under tender RFQ/BOOY/001/2023, worth R48,968,713.20, in the 2023/24 financial year.
Joshco said the procurement followed its supply chain management policy and that Downtown Spares took part through a contractor rotation system.
"This procurement process strictly adhered to Joshco's approved supply chain management policy and governing municipal legislative frameworks, with Downtown Spares participating via an established contractor rotation mechanism," Joshco acting chief executive Katlego Ditshego said.
"Bids were evaluated and adjudicated by duly constituted committees acting in accordance with institutional governance protocols."
Joshco said all directors and committee members were legally required to declare actual or potential conflicts of interest and to recuse themselves from relevant deliberations, but that it did not comment on personal or family relationships, and that individual declarations were confidential.
It said the identities of the members of its evaluation committee were kept confidential to protect officials from undue influence.
Joshco said all capital contracts worth more than R5m were subjected to independent probity audits, and that it was not aware of any adverse findings by the Auditor-General relating to the appointment.
It said the project remained active and that practical completion was expected in December, subject to site conditions.
The board connection and donations
On Sunday, IOL reported on a leaked dossier which claimed that PA loyalists, friends and relatives had landed seats on Johannesburg municipal boards and national arts bodies under PA leader and sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie.
Among its claims, the dossier named Downtown Spares and Francis, alleging that Marilise is his daughter and sat on the Joshco board while the company was in line for the contract.
IOL has since tested those claims against company records, Joshco's tender register, two years of Joshco's quarterly performance reports and the Electoral Commission's party funding disclosures.
Company records obtained by IOL show that Francis has been the sole member of Downtown Spares CC, with a 100% stake, since the close corporation was registered in August 1997.
Joshco's register of tenders awarded between July and September 2023 listed a contract worth R48,968,713.20 to Downtown Spares CC for "the appointment of a contractor for Booysens projects".
The Electoral Commission of South Africa's party funding disclosure report for October to December 2023 listed two donations of R190,000 each from Downtown Spares CC to the PA, received on October 27, 2023 and November 10, 2023.
This means the company made the donations to the PA within months of winning the contract from an entity that fell under a PA member of the mayoral committee.
Leitch, a PA councillor, held the city's housing portfolio until she resigned as member of the mayoral committee in July 2024.
She signed off Joshco's third quarter report for 2023/24 as MMC in May 2024.
The City of Johannesburg, as Joshco's sole shareholder, appoints the entity's board, according to Joshco's reports.
Marilise was appointed to that board as a non-executive director on March 1, 2023, while Leitch held the housing portfolio, Joshco's quarterly reports for 2023/24 show.
Non-executive directors sit on the board responsible for Joshco’s governance and oversight.
Joshco confirmed that Marilise served on the board until her resignation on August 31, 2023, which fell within the quarter which the contract was awarded.
Joshco did not give the date on which the contract was awarded, so it is not clear whether Marilise was still on the board at the time.
Marilise acknowledged IOL's questions but declined to answer them.
"Please direct any further correspondence to the relevant responsible office," she said.
"I will not be providing a separate follow-up response."
The board's chairperson at the time, Sydney James, was appointed on the same day as Marilise, according to Joshco's reports.
James told IOL that he resigned on August 10, 2023 for personal reasons.
The dossier described James as a PA leader, but he said he held no political office in any party while he chaired the board.
"I can confirm that I did not hold any official or unofficial political office position within any political party during my tenure as board chairman," James said.
"I applied for the board position and was appointed.
"I have no knowledge of any political interference in board appointments."
James said the board's role was fiduciary and governance oversight, including oversight of how Joshco applied its supply chain policy, while bid evaluation, adjudication and contract awards were handled by Joshco's administration and the structures authorised under its delegations.
He said he did not know Downtown Spares, and had played no part in the awarding of the contract.
"I do not know Downtown Spares CC and have no knowledge of this company or the award described in your correspondence," James said.
"I had no insight into decisions, recommendations or approvals related to any tenders as that is an operational task.
"I had no knowledge of Downtown Spares and would not have discussed the details with Anthea Leitch, who was the MMC of housing during my tenure."
James confirmed that Marilise was a board member, but said he had no knowledge of any relationship between her and Downtown Spares or its owner, and that Joshco would have to confirm from its records whether her time on the board overlapped with the awarding of the contract.
He said the donations to the PA were made after he left the board and that he had no knowledge of them.
James also said that the listing of a contract in Joshco's quarterly tender register did not, by itself, establish that he had any role in considering or awarding it.
"How can somebody sit on the same board that awards a tender to her father," the dossier asked.
"This again demonstrates how the PA has allegedly used cadre infiltration to manipulate tenders for the benefit of its inner circle and campaigning, to the detriment of the residents of Joburg."
The dossier stated that Marilise later went on to work for McKenzie as the secretary in his ministerial office.
Joshco's fourth quarter report for 2025/26 identified the project as the Booysens Place inner city conversion, with an awarded construction amount of R48,968,713.20.
According to Joshco's reports, the work included stripping out and demolishing parts of the old building, piling and underpinning to strengthen its foundations, strengthening the columns on the ground floor, building a new roof, putting up internal walls, plastering, installing electrical wiring and plumbing, and building a guardhouse, a refuse area and a boundary wall.
The R27.86m comprised of R10.38m spent up to the end of the 2024/25 financial year and R17.48m spent in 2025/26, according to Joshco's latest report.
The report listed the professional fees awarded for the project—separate from the construction contract—at R9.51m.
Although the contract was awarded between July and September 2023, the site was only handed over to the contractor in January 2025, according to Joshco's reports.
Joshco's reports recorded the start date as January 21, 2025.
When work started, three tenants were still running shops on the building's ground floor, according to the reports.
Two of them moved out, but the third refused to be relocated and took Joshco to court, with the court ruling in the tenant's favour.
Joshco said it had set aside another section of the building to move the remaining tenant into, and that the contractor had shifted its work to the parts of the building where the tenant would not be affected.
The completion date has since been pushed back twice.
Joshco's first quarter report for 2025/26 stated that the anticipated completion date had moved from October 22, 2025 to May 8, 2026.
The latest report gave the anticipated completion date as December 10 this year.
The report listed four reasons for the delays.
These were the retail tenants who refused to be relocated and took Joshco to court, slow progress on site by the contractor, Joshco not paying invoices within 30 days, and the contractor's lack of money to keep working while it waited to be paid.
"Slow progress on site resulting in the contractor not completing activities timeously," the report stated.
"Lack of financial capacity of the contractor to carry out the project activities, whilst waiting for the client to pay for invoices submitted."
By the end of June, the new roof was only 10% complete, according to the report.
On the first and second floors, the internal walls were 75% complete, plastering 40%, the first round of electrical wiring 60% and the first round of plumbing 35%, while the strengthening of the ground-floor columns was halfway done.
IOL's examination of Joshco's reports also found that they gave two different contract amounts for the project.
Its second quarter report for 2025/26 listed the contract amount as R38,423,254.28, while its fourth quarter report listed the awarded construction amount as R48,968,713.20.
Company records obtained by IOL show that the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission twice began deregistering Downtown Spares CC for failing to file annual returns, in 2013 and in 2016, before an application to reinstate the close corporation was filed in October 2016.
Its industry is recorded as wholesale and retail trade, and the repair of motor vehicles, while its principal business is listed as construction, a private employment agency, and the supply of goods and services.
On July 16 this year, the close corporation changed its name from Downtown Spares to DTS 8, according to the records.
On the same day, it changed its business classification and updated Francis's member record.
Francis is listed as a director or member of 17 companies, according to company records.
The PA had not responded to IOL's questions by the time of publication.
McKenzie declined to comment.
Francis acknowledged questions but said he could not comment.
"Given the nature and scope of the matters raised, I am not in a position to provide substantive comment at this stage," Francis said.
"I reserve my rights in relation to any inaccurate or defamatory statements that may be published."
IOL