#Bosasagate: Suspension of Justice Department official a smoke and mirrors show
25 February 2019
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha is not serious about investigating corruption involving Bosasa. He’s placed only one official on precautionary suspension and a second has been asked to provide reasons why she should not suffer the same fate, over the Department’s contracts with African Global Operations (formerly Bosasa).
This is nothing but a smoke and mirrors show designed to convince the South African electorate that the failing ANC government is taking recent revelations about a long-standing and fundamentally corrupt relationship between themselves and Bosasa seriously. The precautionary suspension of one or two scapegoated officials does not go nearly far enough to start to get to the heart of the problem.
The truth is that at the heart of the problem there is the ANC, an organisation that is rotten to its very core, as recent events have proven. The suspensions are merely placeholders until the elections, where the ANC hopes to win another five-year mandate to continue their looting of the public purse.
The DA has been calling on President Ramaphosa to conduct a full audit of all government contracts with Bosasa and their subsidiaries. He must now get off his hands and do so without delay. The public can rest assured that it if he does not take the opportunity to do so now, the DA will not pass up the chance to do so once we are elected into government in May. At that point, corrupt cadres of the ANC will have no place left to hide.
The DA further calls on Minister Masutha to make public the record of decision that has led to the suspension in his Department. It is crucial that we know what the extent of the implicated officials’ involvement was, and whether any senior government officials or office bearers are involved and are being protected by Minister Masutha.
The DA has a plan to fight corruption to ensure that all public money is spent on the people. Our plan includes abolishing the captured Hawks and establishing a new permanent and independent unit that is dedicated to fighting and prosecuting corruption.
Issued by by Glynnis Breytenbach, DA Shadow Minister of Justice, 25 February 2019
