The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga welcomes the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) intention to investigate the provincial Department of Culture, Sport, and Recreation for irregularities relating to the Nelson Mandela statue outside the Legislature,
The DA wrote to the SIU in March 2020, asking them to investigate the dubious financial dealings around this statue.
The SIU recently contacted the DA to request further information to investigate the allegations of possible irregularities against the former MEC Thandi Blessing Shongwe and the department of Culture, Sport and Recreation.
The DA approached the SIU to investigate after we found an official document from Godfrey Ntombela, the current Head of the department of Culture, Sport, and Recreation, which was sent to the Mpumalanga Provincial Treasury, the former department of MEC Blessing Thandi Shongwe at that time, asking the MEC to explain why her department irregularly paid Mideast Investment over R9 million in the 2018/2019 financial to construct the statue.
Ntombela’s document says the department paid Mideast that amount knowing very well that the Company was not tax compliant. Ntombela’s official document to Treasury also says that “the department incurred an irregular expenditure by doing so”.
When the Mandela statue was constructed in the 2018/2019 financial year, the DA raised concerns with MEC Shongwe and her department about the R R9 151 848 paid to Mideast Investments, based on the amount and fact that the statue did not look anything like Nelson Mandela at that time.
The DA posed questions in the legislature to MEC Shongwe as it was obvious that there were irregularities concerning the statue and that amount paid to Mideast Investments.
The Culture, Sport, and Recreation Department responded by saying that “Mideast Investment conformed to the prescripts set out by supply chain management”. They also said: “The various criteria on functionality held that bids which scored low on the functionality threshold were disqualified.”
Since 2018, the DA has been fighting to ensure that taxpayers’ money is not used to tarnish the legacy that the Nelson Mandela.
The DA has since given the SIU the relevant information at our disposal and we will wait for the investigation to be completed. If anyone is found to have broken the law in relation to the statue, we will take this further by opening a criminal case.