[ad_1]
ANC MP Mosebenzi Zwane returned to the state capture investigation on Monday, October 12, 2020. The former minerals minister provided further evidence about a hugely wasteful R1bn housing plan in the Free State when it was MEC for settlements. humans. Zwane is accused of campaigning for illegal advances in late 2010.
The former MEC of Human Settlements in the Free State, Mosebenzi Zwane, programmed the testimony of his former youth. Among them is the former Head of the Human Settlements Department (HOD) in the Free State, Mpho Mokoena.
Zwane described himself as a “secular politician” with a limited view of legal matters. As during his previous appearance, he put much of the blame on his subordinates.
He chose, in particular, Mokoena, who implicated Zwane in exerting undue political pressure on department officials to carry out his orders and disobey the law.
“To be frank, I find that his relationship with the events is a bit fractured,” Zwane declared on Monday, October 12, 2020 at the State Capture Investigation.
However, Zwane himself was unwilling to accept as illegal the advance payment of funds to contractors in the Free State’s R1 Billion Wasteful Housing Project.
“There is no doubt that what was proposed and the way it was implemented was completely illegal,” said legal team chief and test leader Paul Pretorius SC.
The advance payment plan in this specific project was confirmed as illegal by a higher court decision and an investigation initiated by the Free State Department of Human Settlements itself.
The Department spent about R600 million without receiving any value in return, as reported by the current HOD of Human Settlements in the Free State, Nthimotse Mokhesi.
Zwane stated: “President, payment in advance or prepayment as it stands, in terms of South African law, is not an illegal problem.”
He cited Treasury regulations and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) on prepayment and the legal requirement for a contract.
“Well, there was no such contract,” Pretorius said.
Quick to deflect any criminal liability, Zwane added: “From where I am sitting, I think it will be unfair for this commission to want to say [to] I, as a secular politician there, should have assumed the responsibilities of an accountant who had actually signed this document. “
At this, both Pretorius and Chief Justice Raymond Zondo chimed in, almost in unison, with the words: “But Mr. Zwane …” Zondo pressed Zwane about his supervisory duties and whether he behaved properly.
Zwane evaded significant responsibility and soon stabbed former HOD Mokoena and other housing officials who accused you of bullying force them to prepay (or prepay) from the end of 2010.
Zwane further criticized Mokoena, stressing that he was responsible as an accountant in terms of the PFMA. Zwane repeated that he trusted the contributions of the then deputy director general of the Department of Agriculture of the Free State, Mmuso Tsoametsi.
After a departmental meeting in October 2010, Tsoametsi was asked to present a report. Zwane surmised that in doing so, Tsoametsi considered the legality of the prepayment approach (although this was not an express area of investigation).
Previously, Tsoametsi testified that he produced a document that was emphatically not a legal opinion. “What do you say about that evidence?” Pretorius asked. “I’ve seen that ever since,” Zwane said.
Zwane argued that the scope of the Tsoametsi report was broad. Therefore, at the time, Zwane assumed that Tsoametsi would assess the legality of the advance payment proposal by default.
“As of November 25, 2010, a lawyer brings me a document signed by himself, it means happy,” said Zwane.
Pretorius pressed Zwane on why, if he was concerned about the legality of the advance payment proposal, he did not get a legal opinion from legal counsel in the prime minister’s office.
Zwane indicated that he had no reason to imagine that Tsoametsi’s report was flawed. Pretorius questioned Zwane about why Tsoametsi was tasked with producing a report that would address the legality of advance payment, when Tsoametsi never practiced as a lawyer.
In his defense, Zwane described Mokoena and senior housing counsel Mphikeleli Kaizer Maxatshwa as other knowledgeable about legal matters. He commented on Mokoena’s testimony, criticizing Mokoena for describing Zwane as “a monster” who wanted the advance payment executed no matter what.
“He told me then: look, we have talked about this. This is my plan and it is going to happen, ”Mokoena testified. He claimed that Zwane told him that if he did not sign the approval for the plan’s implementation, then Mokoena could resign as well. Mokoena alleged that Zwane threatened him with “extreme poverty”, telling Mokoena that he would be “poor, you will be gray, like dust”.
“The people who know me as president, in these different departments, do not seek to work with officials with an iron fist. I always ask, ‘Can we do this?’ If they say no. I say, ‘Why? Tell me.’ If there is legality, I abide by the decision of the collective, ”Zwane replied.
After about four hours of testimony, Zondo adjourned the session. Zwane will return to continue his evidence at a date yet to be announced. Dr. Ben Ngubane is due to testify on Tuesday, October 13, 2020. The proceedings are to begin at 10 am. DM
