EFF STATEMENT ON THE FINDINGS OF THE PUBLIC PROTECTOR ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE
24 February 2016
The EFF notes with utter disgust the content of the report by the Public Protector, Adv. Thuli Madonsela, in respect of the corruption and maladministration at the South African Post Office (“SAPO”) uncovered during the investigation of the relocation to new offices at Eco Point Office Park.
The Public Protector found that there was a deep rooted corrupt relationship between SAPO employees and a number of labour brokers, which drained more than R2.7 billion from the organisation between 2002 an 2012.
The Public Protector further found that there existed a corruption relation between owners of Eco Point Office Park, Centurion Vision Development (Pty) Ltd, and SAPO officials. This corruption relations resulted in R22 million being paid to Centurion Vision Development for ten months rental for unoccupied offices after an irregular lease to the value of R161 million for ten years was signed. The report also indicates that this lease agreement was R48m inflated above the market related cost.
SAPO was not only found to have entered into irregular and unlawful outsourcing contracts with labour brokers but for catering services. The EFF strongly condemns the outsourcing of services especially by public entities, which expose vulnerable workers to exploitation and renders them readily disposable labour.
The current Board of SAPO must institute immediate criminal proceedings against all individuals who were involved in the corrupt practices, including previous members of the board and executives, as well a directors of Centurion Vision Development (Pty) Ltd and those of over twenty labour broking companies that benefited from unlawful activities.
The Public Protector remedial action requires that the current SAPO board recover R22 million paid to Centurion Vision Development (Pty) Ltd. We further call on the board to recover the R2.7 billion paid labour broking companies that according to the findings of the Public Protector had a corrupt relationship with SAPO. There will be no need for government to bailout SAPO to a tune of R3 billion when it should instead recover this R2.7 billion to primarily corrupt white labour broking companies.
The EFF calls on SAPO board to lay criminal charges without delay to ensure that all the directors of these companies are prosecute and jailed.
The rest of the remedial action by the Public Protector should also be implemented without delay. The current management and the board of SAPO should review all current contracts and ensure that public funds are not further wasted on over-inflated contracts.
The EFF commitment to eradicate tenders and build state capacity is primarily to ensure that such rot uncovered at SAPO like many other public institutions never happens again. Limited public funds should be directed towards much needed social programmes and not to the pockets of corrupt officials and private sector companies.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 24 February 2016
