Justice still evades Mantelli’s over biscuit tender

Despite findings in his favour in four independent investigations, including by National Treasury and the Public Protector (PP), Simon Mantell is still fighting for justice after SAA subsidiary Air Chefs awarded a tender to his biscuit company Mantelli’s almost a decade ago, only to withdraw the award unlawfully days later.

The latest episode saw Mantell defending the PP report in court in October after former Air Chefs CEO Martin Kemp took it on review. The PP did not defend her own report, apparently due to lack of resources.

Speaking outside court, Mantell said at least 27 public sector officials and directors, 13 in the private sector, two audit companies, seven lawyers and four professional bodies participated in the unlawful conduct or simply looked the other way and protected each other.

A few of the professionals have been held to account, but only after Mantell personally drove the processes and went to extremes to get the professional bodies to act.

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In terms of the tender documents Mantelli’s would have been appointed as supplier of savoury snacks on the flights of Air Chef’s clients, including SAA. That meant more than 13 million biscuits over three years.

“It was not only the order, but the brand exposure that would have been invaluable,” says Mantell, sole proprietor of Mantelli’s.

Back story

Air Chefs and its holding company SAA simply ignored several recommendations to settle matters in Mantelli’s favour.

They initially gave the order to Ciro, a subsidiary of JSE-listed AVI, whose tender was non-compliant according to ENS Forensics.

Mantelli’s was 13% cheaper than Ciro. Later on Ciro supplied Air Chefs through Bidvest Food, which had been disqualified early in the tender process.

The dispute started in February 2014 when Kemp wrote a letter to Mantell to congratulate him on the tender award.

Shortly thereafter Kemp “amended” the letter, saying Mantelli’s was not appointed as supplier of the biscuits, but merely qualified to be appointed to a panel of suppliers who may get orders as and when Air Chefs clients required their product.

‘Improper’

The PP found that the “amendment” constituted improper conduct and maladministration to the detriment of Mantelli’s.

On 31 January 2020 she found that Air Chefs must apologise to Mantell in writing within 10 days, compensate Mantelli’s for its expenses, including legal and travelling costs, and hold the relevant officials to account.

None of this was done.

Air Chefs, with the approval of Kemp and later by his successor David Coyne, took the PP report on review instead and asked the court to set it aside.

Mantell, on the other hand, asked that the findings and remedial action be upheld.

In addition, he asked the court for R5 million in damages, that being the profit Mantelli’s would have earned but for the unlawful conduct of Air Chefs, as well as interest on the amount for the three-year duration of the cancelled tender.

He further asks that the matter is referred to the National Prosecution Authority.

Mantell does not stop there. He asks that Kemp and Coyne be ordered to pay a part of his legal cost out of their own pockets, since their action, funded by taxpayers’ money, is aimed at protecting Kemp’s reputation.

Allegations

In the recent hearing, Air Chefs alleged that the PP’s staff were biased due to pressure from Mantell and therefore found in his favour.

This, they argued, after Mantell was forced to go to court earlier to compel the PP to finalise her report following little progress over a period of six years, first under the helm of Advocate Thuli Madonsela and then Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

Air Chefs further alleged that the PP’s staff were aggressive and arrogant towards officials from Air Chefs during a meeting, failed to give them an opportunity to respond, and refused to provide them with legal documents. This was contained in an affidavit by Kemp.

Air Chefs failed to provide the transcript of the meeting.

Mantell however made it his business to find the transcript and provide it to the court. It did not support the Air Chefs version.

Mantelli’s legal representative showed the court how Basani Baloyi, at the time COO at the PP, repeatedly told the Air Chefs representatives that the PP is there to assist them and advised them to settle with Mantell.

Kemp did not give any explanation for this to the court.

Judgment was reserved.