POLOKWANE – The MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA), Makoma Makhurupetje, has been subpoenaed to provide the DA with a departmental report on the ‘bizarre’ purchase of unoccupied land in Tubatse Municipality at a cost of R108 million.

The municipality allegedly sold the land to private developers for R4 million who in turn sold the land back to the department for a staggering R108 million.

According to Jacques Smalle, DA Provincial Leader, Treasury has prompted the Auditor-General (AG) to refer the matter to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) due to the department’s ineptitude to effectively handle this matter.

Smalle stated, according to the Annual Report for the 2016/2017 financial year for CoGHSTA, the AG has regarded the purchase as a fruitless and wasteful expenditure. This contributed to the department’s audit opinion which regressed to a qualified opinion with findings.

When BONUS, at a post-Executive Committee press briefing last week where the audit results were divulged, asked about the reasons why the department regressed, the MEC for Treasury, Rob Tooley, said it was “about land purchased for an amount above its actual value”.

Smalle said the AG conducted a forensic investigation on the purchase, adding “its outcomes are willfully concealed to protect senior officials within the department and the municipality” but Makhurupetje denied outright that there is a forensic report on the land purchase matter as alleged by the DA.

“The issue of the land purchase in Tubatse was never kept a secret by government as it was the department itself that ensured the matter is officially disclosed in the audit report,” she said.

“Despite the portfolio committee on CoGHSTA’s request for the report as well as the DA’s numerous attempts to obtain the report from both the department and the municipality, the department is headstrong in concealing the findings,” Smalle said adding that, given the seriousness of these allegations, it is vital the report is made public, not only to force the administration to be transparent but to hold officials to account.

“Not only do the public deserve to know how this land was purchased but it will also expose the corrupt ANC-led government who sold the land to enrich their friends and the connected few rather than developing the land for the residents of Tubatse. The current backlog for RDP houses in Limpopo is 80 000 and this imprudent purchase of land is indicative that the ANC has lost its touch with the people.”
Smalle said the DA believes gaining access to this report into alleged corruption in the purchase of this land will go a long way in ensuring land is actually delivered to those who deserve it and not ‘ANC cronies’.

“The MEC has 30 days to respond to the DA’s PAIA application in which she should provide answers about her delaying tactics to release the report as well as a timeframe on implementing the findings.
“The DA will not stand back and allow the ANC-led administration to unabatedly raid the public coffers at the expense of effective service delivery,” Smalle said.

Makhurupetje on Tuesday stated the DA’s media release was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

“It must be put on record that this application has not as yet been formally received by the department in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act. This therefore makes the application superficial until such time when the department receives it,” she said.

She added, as far as the department is concerned, the matter is in the hands of the national Auditor-General who still has to make a determination whether there is prima facie evidence warranting forensic investigation or whether to refer the matter to the SIU.

nelie@nmgroup.co.za