The full Manase Report must be made public and tabled in Parliament
According to media reports, only the abridged version of the long-awaited Manase and Associates audit report - which provides a detailed account of fraud and corruption in eThekwini municipality - will be released on Wednesday, 29 May 2013. This version is alleged not to contain the names of politicians and officials implicated for fraud and corruption by Manase and Associates.
The fact that the full report will not be made public, and that the key annexures will not be released, points to an attempt to cover-up key information in a bid to protect senior politicians from being held accountable. This is unacceptable and must be challenged.
I will write to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Richard Baloyi, urging him to commit to ensuring that the full, uncensored version of the Manase report is released. We will furthermore request that the report be tabled in Parliament to allow the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to engage with its findings and ensure that those responsible for corruption are held accountable.
In February last year, key findings and recommendations of the Manase report were referred to the eThekwini municipality by the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal Nomsa Dube. The investigation found R1.3 billion over-expenditure attributable to wide-scale corruption, tender fraud, maladministration and inappropriate business dealings. The report implicated 10 councillors, 135 officials and the former mayor, the former municipal manager and numerous current department heads as being guilty of corrupt behaviour. The report recommended that disciplinary procedures be implemented against all officials named, and that a forensic investigation be conducted into all irregular contracts.
To date, eThekwini municipality has not implemented any of the recommendations of the report nor punished those implicated. This is despite repeated calls by the DA for the municipality to make the findings public and implement its recommendations. We seek to establish exactly who was implicated and what the sanction has been in each case
The people of eThekwini and South Africa need to be reassured that acts of corruption will not be ignored. The DA trusts that Minister Baloyi will ensure that this crucial report is tabled in Parliament and that the full report is released publicly.
Anything less will effectively bury this corruption scandal and ensure that those responsible for stealing from South Africans are let off the hook.
Statement issued by John Steenhuisen MP, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, May 27 2013
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