DA welcomes the resignation of Hangwani Mulaudzi

10 November 2020

Whilst the Democratic Alliance (DA) is awaiting confirmation from Dr Godfrey Lebeya regarding the resignation of Hawks Spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi, we welcome Mr Mulaudzi’s resignation as we believe there is sufficient prima facie evidence in the public domain to suggest that an urgent investigation be done regarding his alleged involvement in the misappropriation of National Lotteries Commission (NLC) funds.

A non-profit organisation (NPO) that was named after Mr Mulaudzi allegedly received R3 million for the building of a sports centre in Mashamba in Limpopo from the NLC, which if true, is a clear conflict of interest as the Hawks were already probing other matters of alleged corruption pertaining to the disbursement of NLC funds.

Funds intended for the sports centre were allegedly spent on items unrelated to the actual project itself such as the purchasing of mini-bus taxis and kickbacks paid to NLC officials.

As already stated in October, the DA has been privy to an internal Department of Social Development document which shows that Mr Muluadzi suspiciously changed the name of his NPO from the Hangwani Mulaudzi Foundation to the Bono Foundation in August 2020.

Moreover, the internal document revealed that Mr Mulaudzi’s foundation failed to submit annual reports and compliance documents since 2018, which simply makes the donation of funds from the NLC more sinister.

It is imperative that a proper and thorough investigation takes place into the alleged misappropriation of funds from the NLC.

Claims such as this cannot remain untested. If Mr Mulaudzi truly believes that this is nothing but a smear campaign against him, he would have no problem giving his complete cooperation to an investigation into the matter.

The DA reiterates that it is not in Parliament to pussyfoot around dishonest government officials.

Issued by Mat Cuthbert,DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, 10 November 2020