[ad_1]
Zwane worker. (Gallo images)
- The Zondo commission heard how the former Free State Human Settlements MEC, Mosebenzi Zwane, instructed a department head to appoint contractors allegedly close to him to be part of the R1 billion housing plan.
- This week, the commission shifted its focus to the “irregular” and “fraudulent” housing project.
- The commission heard that millions of rand were stolen from the project.
Former Free State Human Settlements MEC Mosebenzi Zwane allegedly instructed a then department head to name 106 contractors in the 1 billion rand housing scheme that led to the theft of close to R600 million.
In 2010 and 2011, the people of the Free State were promised houses, yet many of those houses were never built, putting some people’s hopes to be dashed.
The state capture investigation has heard that the department spent more than R500 million before any work could be done.
The evidence revealed that the housing department made payments to contractors and vendors without any written agreement or proof that houses had been built.
He also heard that Zwane selected who should be part of the project. And in the end, the department lost more than 400 million rand.
The money was spent after the national department threatened to transfer part of the Free State’s housing budget to “better-performing provinces.”
Free State had spent less than the money allocated to them. However, a plan was quickly devised to spend the money that prompted more than 100 contractors to get paid upfront before anything could be done.
There was no procurement process with respect to the contractors and the parties that supplied materials.
‘Completely irregular’
The entire plan was “completely irregular,” Supreme Court Vice President Raymond Zondo, chairman of the commission, was told.
ANALYSIS | The billion rand housing plan that paved the way for future state capture
On Tuesday, the commission continued to hear evidence from Nthimose Mokhesi, head of human settlements in the province.
Mokhesi was not part of the department at the time and only entered the scene later. He filed an affidavit in order to recover some of the money his department had lost, saying that the entire scheme was “fraudulent.”
During the process, the evidence leader, attorney Paul Pretorius, read an affidavit from the then department head, Mpho Mokoena, saying that towards the end of 2010, Zwane approached him with a list of some 106 contractors and indicated that name them.
Mokoena said the first six were contractors the department had never used before.
He said he remembered asking Zwane why they were assigning houses to contractors they didn’t know.
“However, the MEC insisted that these were the contractors we should use,” it said in its affidavit.
He also added that in relation to the six contractors, he recalled the names of three of them.
He claimed that the contractors were close to Zwane because he had personally called him to expedite the processing of his payments.
Mokoena said the department assigned between 500 and 600 units to the first six contractors that appeared on the MEC list.
At that stage, RDP houses were built for an amount of about R55,000, he said.
When Pretorius asked Mokhesi, who was on the stand, if there was any investigation being done on this, Mokhesi said that he did not investigate this. He said it was a meeting between two people.
Mokhesi also told Zondo that those involved did not “clarify” who selected the contractors and how they were selected.
READ ALSO | Free State’s asbestos project is flawed process with no evidence of competitive bidding, Zondo commission hears
When Zondo asked Mokhesi if he asked Mokoena about contractors, Mokhesi said no.
Zondo asked:
Why didn’t you write to him? Why didn’t you phone him and say ‘Mr. Mokoena, you were the HOD when this mess happened, who selected these people? ‘ Why did you limit your inquiries to junior officials when you knew who HOD was at the time?
Mokhesi did not have a clear answer: He said he was not the only person investigating the matter. He said the Special Investigation Unit was also aware of the matter.
He also said that when he arrived at the department, the SIU told him that officials were not cooperating with the investigations.
Although the commission heard that there was a report from the Special Investigation Unit, a civil judicial offer and a disciplinary investigation, those who gave the instructions were not charged.
Pretorius also raised the issue of several junior officials who were fired even after they said they were simply following instructions.
He said a disciplinary investigation was carried out against the junior officials.
He also said that there was a thorough investigation regarding certain people, but that regarding others, it appeared that there was no investigation at all and the inference drawn was that certain people were being protected.
However, Mokhesi denied knowing if anyone was protected.
