Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Leona Kleynhans MPL, DA Member of the Free State Legislature.
Today the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC), and former Premier of the Free State, Elias Sekgobelo Magashule, will appear before court for the second time regarding the controversial and corrupt asbestos housing contracts in the Free State. The Democratic Alliance (DA) initially exposed this corruption and laid criminal charges against Mr Magashule relating to these illegal contracts and other projects in the Free State.
Mr Magashule was brought before the Bloemfontein Regional Court on 13 November last year, when he was formally charged with fraud, money laundering and corruption. These charges relate to the illegal payments made in connection with the controversial asbestos housing tender saga, which the DA first brought to the Bloemfontein High Court in July of 2015.
The DA is relieved that the long arm of justice has stretched out into Luthuli House and snatched Mr Magashule out, and has brought him back to Bloemfontein, where he will have to account before court for the pain and suffering he has brought upon over 32,500 families who still live in houses with dangerous asbestos roofs in the Free State. We must keep these families in mind, when we hear in the coming months about the wheeling’s and dealings of the various politicians, officials and cronies during their jostling for portions of the loot which was extracted from the Free State Department of Public Works and Human Settlements in the name of these poor people. It was the fake concern for the wellbeing of these disadvantaged people, which provided the justification for this looting.
The DA are requesting the ANC factions to respect the rule of law, to protect the integrity of our judiciary and allow justice to take its course without fear or favour. The DA will be watching with close interest how these grand schemes are slowly unravelled before court. And we will weep at every revelation of how the poorest people were used as the instruments for plunder. We will watch as more and more of the evil heart of darkness is exposed.
The DA will ensure that the wheels of justice continue to grind relentlessly until the price has been paid for what has been done to the people of the Free State. We will continue to fight doggedly until hope can once more be restored in the hearts of the hopeless, and that they too can again look forward to a better future under a DA-run government.