So why is Mantashe hiding the results of a probe into corruption?

9 November 2022

At yesterday's meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister Gwede Mantashe dismissed a scheduled committee discussion of an internal investigation into corruption at regional offices. The committee allowed him to do so without protest.

The report results from an investigation launched by Mantashe shortly after he became minister in 2018. A task team was sent to the regional offices in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North-West to investigate allegations of the double-granting of licenses, of the improper application of Section 54 safety stoppages and the backlogs in the issuing of licenses.

Regional offices were closed for some months and some staff were suspended and then apparently reinstated.

The release of the report to the committee and a discussion of the report has been on the committee programme all term. Yet the report was not released to the committee as required and when I questioned it, Minister Mantashe said internal reports should not be made public and the matters were being addressed anyway.

Which prompts the question: What is it in the disciplinary report that the minister is trying to hide?

This is also a disturbing sign that Parliament, which should be overseeing the work of the executive, is all too ready to defer to the executive when it wants to change the subject.

The DA will continue to ask questions to find out what went on in the Department, if anybody has been held accountable, and if not, why not.

Issued by James Lorimer, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources, 9 November 2022