The Eastern Cape government said it would provide a comprehensive response next week to the Public Protector's report on the misappropriation of money by the Bhisho government in the expenditure on the funeral of former President Nelson Mandela.
Advocate Busisiwe Mkwebane released her report on Monday, saying among other findings, that an amount of R300m had been improperly spent on the funeral, a figure disputed by the Eastern Cape government.
Bhisho government spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, said on Wednesday that they welcome the release of the report, which he said had clouded the affairs of the provincial government and impacted on its reputation.
"The provincial government welcomes the report by the Public Protector. Because, in our view, this has placed an unnecessary cloud over the affairs of the provincial government. Of course in the public space there is also the very important task of reputation management and this cloud has impacted on that."
"Our immediate reaction is that we are going through the report as the provincial government and once we have understood the implications of all findings as well as remedial actions that the Public Protector is prescribing, we will then be able to come out and offer a comprehensive response to the Public Protector having released this report."
"Immediately, we also want to reaffirm to the people of the Eastern Cape, whom we serve, that this administration maintains a zero-tolerance stance against corruption. Corruption across society, particularly in the Public Service because the public expects us to conduct their affairs accordingly, in unison with the laws of the country."
"We want to immediately also say that all those persons who are found to have been liable for the wasteful or irregular expenditure of public funds in regards to the funeral itself will be held to account and they will be made to account fully."
Mbananga said that the Bhisho government also disputed the amount of R300m mention in the report of the Public Protector that had been spent irregularly.
"The Premier also moved to clarify (on Tuesday) that there is a sum of R300m has been spent on the funeral of uTata Mandela, and that is not the case. The entire amount that went into the expenditure on the funeral amounts to R22m. We must be clear about that but these are issues that we will ventilate more comprehensively when we convene a media briefing next week when we table our full response to the Public Protector's releasing of the report.
Mbananga also rejected any insinuation of the culpability of Premier Phumullo Masualle in the saga as it relates to amount of R250,000 that he said had been erroneously transferred from Provincial Treasury into the Premier's personal bank account when he was still the MEC for Economic Development, to be used for payments for some of the funeral arrangements.
"I also want to touch on the matter of the R250,000 that various media entities keep revisiting insofar as the Premier's culpability in this whole saga. And, we reject outright the insinuation that Premier Masualle acted untoward or in a corrupt manner around this situation. The Premier went to town in terms of explaining that to media in Mthatha on Tuesday that the amount of R250,000 was erroneously transferred into the personal account of the Premier who was then the MEC for Finance in the province."
"When the Premier learned of this he immediately flagged this with the Department of Economic Development at the time and insisted that this money be taken out of his account and taken back into the Department's purse." In explaining why did the money land in the Premier's account in the first place, Mbananga said that in the absence of a credit card that would have been used to facilitate the arrival and hosting of various dignitaries who were attending the funeral some officials thought that it would be a good idea to put this money into the Premier's account for that use, and of course that was irregular."
"The Premier acted accordingly and ensured that the money was taken back to where it came from. Of that R250,000, a sum of R5,000 had been used for the purpose that I've just explained insofar as the Premier, who was then the MEC for Economic Development, together with other MEC's who had been tasked by the government of the day to take care of the visiting dignitaries in the province. That R5,000 that had been utilised has been fully accounted for but the rest of it went back to the coffers of Economic Development," he said.
Mbananga said the Eastern Cape government rejects outright any insinuation by anybody who would want to sully the name and reputation of the Premier in that regard. Insofar as other layers of government, because various and multiple government agencies or layers of government, including local governments in some respects, have been found to have a case to answer insofar as money that was spent irregularly. And, we stand firm as government to say that those persons will face the full might of the law at the appropriate time."
In her report, Advocate Mkwebane slammed the Bhisho administration. “As far as the poor planning is concerned, it is very scary, I must say. It is very concerning. You find am email being sent to the ECDC [Eastern Cape Development Corporation] telling it to pay R11 million by 11 o’clock and the documents will follow. You find a company that has produced t-shirts [bidding farewell to the revered statesman], but they are not delivered. You find that the person who signed for the t-shirts is not even an employee of the municipality,” Mkhwebane said as she addressed a press briefing in Pretoria on Monday.
“When forensic investigations were done, they found that the person who signed up [procured] for the t-shirts, actually works for the supplier. Then the suppliers say I delivered the t-shirts, I didn’t find anyone and I dropped the t-shirts at the taxi rank. Some venues were organised but no people came forth.”
Mkhwebane said the levels of plunder which went around the level one State funeral were deeply disheartening.
