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By IOL Reporter 
3h ago
Cape Town: “The noose of justice is closing around the neck of former Free State politicians like Mosebenzi Zwane and Ace Magashule, as officials are no longer willing to fall back on their swords to protect their former political bosses” .
This is the opinion of the district attorney, who issued a statement Friday after former Free State settlement MEC Zwane made some damning statements at Zondo’s commission of inquiry on Friday.
His testimony is linked to a housing project in the Free State that saw millions of rand wasted on illegal prepayments to contractors and suppliers for undelivered work.
The witnesses, consisting of former department officials, testified that it was Zwane’s idea to come up with a plan to appoint 106 contractors to build 14,000 houses in 2010.
Witnesses said Zwane lobbied for certain contractors to be appointed and for prepayments left outside of the procurement processes.
Zwane admitted that the appointment of contractors outside of an open bidding process for the R1.4 billion housing project was wrong, but said the provincial executive council gave the go-ahead at the time, led by the then prime minister and current secretary general of the ANC. Magashule.
He also said that he cannot be held responsible for illegal decisions, testifying that the then head of the department, Mpho Mokoena, should be held accountable for mismanagement and poor financial decisions.
Regarding the process of “manual selection” of companies to do the work, some of which were rejected during the failed open bidding process, Zwane pointed to Mokoena as the man who allegedly came up with the plan.
However, this did not match what Mokoena said earlier in the week, who accused Zwane of having compiled the list of companies himself.
Zwane also stated that he was unaware of the existence of a Housing Law when he served as MEC for human settlements.
The district attorney said: ” It is not a coincidence that Mosebenzi Zwane was appointed to departments such as Human Settlements and Agriculture and Rural Development in the Free State, resulting in the R1 billion homes and R380 million Vrede Dairy scandals. .
“It is becoming apparent that Zwane was handpicked to be the political head of the departments that were targeted for looting.
“In his defense, Zwane’s testimony and defense in the Zondo Commission regarding the housing issue is based on ignorance of the law and the government’s bidding procedures, while deliberately throwing the officials involved under the bus of The responsability.
“This is not new in the Free State, where officials also face criminal charges at Vrede Dairy and other corruption allegations, while politicians have yet to be charged.
“Zwane’s avowed ignorance of the law and the requirements for his position is a mere smokescreen, but should be a cause for concern as he was promoted from mayor to MEC and then to national minister under the ANC-led governments. It seems that ignorance is in all probability a requirement for promotion in the ANC.
His use of ignorance is. However, it amounts to extreme arrogance as it undermines the intelligence of all who are watching his interrogation in commission.
“The current Prime Minister of the Free State, Sefora Ntombela, was the former MEC of Human Settlements in the Magashule administration and pledged in 2016 to investigate the R1 billion housing scandal.
To date, she has avoided all responsibility and liability as political head of the provincial government with the authority and resources to ensure investigations and accountability with respect to all allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
” Corruption in the Free State has kept the province one of the poorest in the country with high levels of unemployment, collapsed services and human degradation. These scandals demonstrate how corruption impoverishes the poor.
” The outrage with which Free State residents and other South Africans view the latest testimonies from Zondo Commission officials and politicians is legitimate.
” The funds of the provincial government of the Free State have been an easy fruit for corrupt politicians, officials and businessmen for more than a decade.
” Our people in the province want to see nothing less than politicians in orange Correctional Services coveralls, and the stolen money recovered from those inside and outside the province who have stolen it.
While there is so much controversy over the abuse of tenders, there remains one tender that will bring relief to the residents of the province, which is the tender for the orange monkey.
“The district attorney is willing to provide the political name tags for these monkeys free of charge.”
MESS
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