Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Leona Kleynhans MPL, Member of the Official Opposition in the Free State Legislature.
I have just confirmed that an arrest warrant was issued this morning for the current Secretary General of the ANC and former Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule. This is in relation to the illegal Free State asbestos housing contracts in which the Department of Human Settlements was used as a vehicle to launder R255 million from government into the pockets of various cronies.
The matter started when the Democratic Alliance (DA) obtained the contract itself and documents related to the contract in May 2015. In July 2015, we approached the High Court in Bloemfontein for an urgent interdict to stop payments, because we were convinced that the contract had been established with the sole purpose of laundering money. The judge in the matter ruled that it was not urgent, thus sadly paving the way for the illegal payments to continue.
However, in October 2015 the DA lodged a formal complaint with the Public Protector (PP) in relation to the contract. Our complaint included our belief that the contract itself was illegal, that the payments were illegal, and that the entire project had been of no value to the Department nor to the Free State.
In May this year, the PP released her report in which her findings vindicated most of the concerns raised in our complaint. It was clear from the findings that the contract had been illegally entered into, that the payments had been illegal, and that the contract had not been value for money. The recommendations in the report were that the Premier should hand over the matter to the SAPS with a view to investigate the Head of the Department, Tim Mokhesi. The report went on to state that other senior officials should face an internal investigation.
At the end of May this year, we lodged a criminal case with the Hawks in Bloemfontein against the former MEC Olly Mlamleli, who had been the second respondent in our 2015 case, as well as against former Premier Ace Magashule for his dealings in the matter.
Ms Mlamleli had been seated in the court-room when the urgency of our application had been discussed. Our case was in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, which makes a person in a position of authority, equally guilty if he is aware of a crime taking place and does not act to prevent it. Ms Mlamleli was arrested and has appeared in court, with her trial set to continue in Bloemfontein tomorrow.
Our complaint against Ace Magashule, stemmed from the fact that at the time of our 2015 court case, the state legal advisor Mr Bertus Venter, had been seated in the office of the Premier, and that this office had been tasked with launching a legal defence on behalf of the MEC which the Premier had appointed. It is impossible that the Premier could not reasonably have known that his MEC had been dragged to court by the Official Opposition in the Free State Legislature.
We are very happy that at last the man who has been plundering the province and impoverishing its citizens since 1994 will face justice. He has acted with impunity for twenty six years, and the DA’s legal battle which lasted over many years has at last brought Mr Magashule before the law. Magashule still has many other issued, among others the Vrede Dairy Project, that he has to answer for before the courts.
The tragedy of the destruction of the Free State and the plundering of state coffers by Mr Magashule will hopefully now be brought to an end as the wheels of justice turn against him. The wheels of justice do indeed turn exceedingly slow, but the DA will continue to ensure that its inexorable movement will not be stopped.