MANYANE MANYANE
Durban businessman Ferrel Govender, who together with his younger brother is accused of killing another businessman, has lucrative business interests across the country.
Govender, 40, the group chief executive officer of security company Pro Secure (PTY) Ltd and his brother Darren, 35, were arrested following the murder of Shailen Singh, 32, the owner of Shail Trans, a logistics company.
Singh was shot multiple times while seated in his vehicle in the parking lot of a restaurant on Meridian Drive in Umhlanga, north of Durban last month.
The brothers appeared in court on Friday but the matter was adjourned for further investigations, including an identity parade ahead of a formal bail application.
The elder brother, Ferrel, has no criminal record and is listed as a director of 19 companies across the country, including beverages, properties and protection services.
This information was revealed by a private investigator Paul O’Sullivan, who launched a probe following Govender’s arrest.
O’Sullivan’s investigation found that Govender at one stage had worked for the eThekwini Municipality.
The municipality’s spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said it could only verify if a person is a former employee if an employee number is provided.
“Please verify with the police if this person is a former City employee and they no longer work for the City. There is no longer any link between the two parties and therefore there is nothing compelling the City to verify anything,” she said.
Kwazulu-Natal police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda said they were not in a position to confirm Govender's employment record.
Govender owns at least three properties - two in Pietermaritzburg and one in Pretoria.
His social media profiles reveal a lavish lifestyle with expensive clothes, cars and accessories.
In 2022, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found that Pro Secure was among the beneficiaries of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure when the unit uncovered irregularities of R182 million by the Limpopo health department in the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed in a statement that it had uncovered irregularities in the appointment of service providers Pro Secure and other companies worth approximately R182 million.
The company was among 216 hand-picked companies that shared Limpopo’s R932m worth of PPE contracts despite the company not appearing on the official database of suppliers.
It was reported that the majority of the successful bidders appeared to be politically connected individuals, ANC activists and relatives of senior officials and prominent politicians.
The SIU initiated action against Pro Secure and others, alleging the company had made secret profits and it also instituted civil proceedings against the former head of health in the province, Dr Thokozani Florence Mhlongo.
Pro Secure last year failed in its attempt to stop the SIU from going after it to recover millions of rands benefited from the contract.
The company raised several objections in its application to the Special Tribunal, challenging the SIU’s legal standing and the fact that the Limpopo health department was not a party to the SIU action. It also claimed that there was no allegation that its bid for the contract was not lawful.
However, the Special Tribunal dismissed the application and ordered the company to pay the costs.
Pro Secure submitted a quote for 5 000 white electronic hand disinfectant dispenser holders and for 5 000 liquid sanitisers and the total amount was just more than R7 million. But the company delivered 30 000 dispenser holders at R420 per unit and 9 000 litres of liquid sanitiser at R170 a litre and was paid close to R162 million.
The Govender brothers’ lawyer, Ravindra Maniklall confirmed that Ferrel Govender is a well known businessman with several companies under his name and said his client had been in business ‘for a very long time’.
Asked if he was aware that his client is a former employee of the eThekwini Municipality, Maniklall said he had no idea and that he never discussed this with him.
He also declined to comment on Pro Secure's involvement in the PPE scandal, saying his focus is only on the ongoing case.
Pro Security, one of the biggest protection service providers in the country, is a subsidiary of Pro Secure (PTY) Ltd and has branches in other provinces such as Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and the North West.
The company has provided protection services to more than 94 companies including government entities such as Eskom, Ithala, Ndwedwe Local Municipality, Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health, King Shaka International Airport, Prasa and the Department of Agriculture.
The company has also provided services to private corporations including Anglo-American, FNB, Metrofile, Pep Africa and Edcon.
Its services include armed response, private technology solutions, automation systems, pest control and hygiene.