Pretoria - The Democratic Alliance on Sunday urged Sports, Arts, and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa to institute an investigation into missing assets "worth millions" at Freedom Park in Pretoria.
In a reply to parliamentary question on Friday, it was revealed that assets worth R9,811,762 were unaccounted for at the heritage site, DA shadow deputy minister of sports, arts, and culture Veronica van Dyk said in a statement.
"This is in contrast to evidence in the DA’s possession. The DA has letters that show clearly that Freedom Park heritage site cannot account for R19,838,303.05 of its furniture," she said.
Freedom Park CEO Hulisani Ramugadi had in October 2019 written letters to staff members "with invoices for non-compliance of the asset management policy" on safeguarding Freedom Park`s fixed assets.
"It is not clear how many staff members have received invoices, but some of the employees are apparently no longer/have never been employed at Freedom Park," Van Dyk said.
Freedom Park boasts a memorial with a list of those killed in various wars and a museum.
The DA sought clarity on various issues, including the discrepancy between the two figures and whether almost R10 million had been recovered since October last year; had anybody been found guilty of corruption; and the employment status of all individuals who received invoices.
"For far too long we have seen gross negligence of public resources occur without proper interventions to hold wrongdoers to account. The DA will not allow this culture of unaccountability, wasteful expenditure, and mismanagement to continue unchallenged," Van Dyk said.