Helen Zille justifies arms deal style kickbacks, linked to Cape Town Stadium corruption.
COSATU rejects the explanation provided by Helen Zille about the related to the building of the Cape Town stadium. Her claims that there is nothing amiss in the stadium pricing, because other levels of Government as well as FIFA was involved is nothing less than an attempted cover up.
What is clear is that corrupt acts had taken place related to the building of the stadium; this fact has been confirmed by the Competition Commission against the construction companies. The fact that the price nearly doubled after the initial budget should have raised a red flag to the most inexperienced accountant.
This increase in price that was approved by the procurement procedures must raise serious questions about the suitability of the procurement practices. This procurement policy is still used by the City, and this could be the reason why so many questions are being raised about the corruption in general procurement in the City.
This obvious dubious practice that led to the misappropriation of billions of Rands of public money must raise some serious questions. These questions can only be answered by an independent forensic audit that investigates all the parties involved. The City of Cape Town should initiate this forensic audit, given the location of the stadium and the involvement of the Mayor's office.
COSATU calls on Helen Zille and the Mayor whose offices oversaw the process, to make the call for a forensic audit by 12h00 Monday 14th February 2011, and to confirm same in writing to COSATU by that time. Should this not be done, COSATU will lay charges against all the parties involved, and ask the South African Police to investigate the charges. We will consider asking for the removal from office of Helen Zille until the investigations are completed, as there is a very real danger that the investigation could be interfered with.
We are compelled to take this drastic route because the public funds that were misappropriated could have brought great relief to the desperate circumstance of working families. It could have built hundreds of houses, brought new train sets for the transport needs of workers, improved the education and health care services for working families. This is just another example of those in the society like CEOs of companies and senior political officials [mayors and premiers] who earn in excess of a million rand a year, who treat Government money as their own purses. The DA hands were in this cookie jar that was raided; whether they took some money for themselves, the police must investigate.
Statement issued by COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, February 9 2011
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