Agang SA Wants ANC Fraudster Maimane Recalled as Madibeng Speaker
Johannesburg; 24 January 2014: Agang SA today called on the ANC to reverse its ill-advised appointment of convicted fraudster Douglas Maimane as speaker of the crisis-hit Madibeng local council.
Maimane pleaded guilty to helping defraud parliament, the government and South Africans of about R18-million in 2006. He was elected speaker after the ANC ordered his predecessor, Buti Makhongela, to resign, along with former mayor Poppy Magongwa and former chief whip Solly Malete (see Times report).
This, after their failure to implement anti-corruption measures recommended in a ministerial task team, following the discovery of corruption that cost the council more than R21 million.
Widespread corruption is at the centre of the Madibeng council's failure to provide clean water and other basic services to residents. Had this not happened, residents of Mothutlung would have had no reason to march last week, and nobody would have died or been injured.
Agang SA views the appointment of a fraudster to such a key position as an insult to the memory of Michael Tshele, Lerato Theodore Seema, Enoch Seimela and Osiah Rahube, who paid the ultimate price for daring to stand up to ANC government corruption that has robbed them of water, a basic human right denied to many, 20 years into democracy.
The unseemly appointment smacks of the all too familiar ANC cronyism and cadre deployment that favours party loyalty over competence and accountability. It also exposes as a lie the governing party's professed anti-corruption stance in its election manifesto.
What the people of Madibeng and all South Africans want is a Clean, Competent and Accountable Government that will have zero tolerance to corruption. That way, every rand of public money will be spent on improving the lives of citizens, instead of into the pockets of ANC government officials, their cronies and families.
An Agang SA government will come hard on corruption and stop the stealing, with a minimum 15 years sentence for all corruption crimes and a ban on officials and their families from doing business with government.
Instead, Maimane was given a slap on the wrist for his part in the theft of R18 million of our money. He was fined a mere R25 000 or three years in prison and a suspended jail term of five years. He was ordered to pay the fine in 10 instalments.
Statement issued by Sam Njela, Agang SA National FIeld Director, January 24 2014
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