ANC North West treasurer and former Madibeng city manager Philemon Mapulane believes a political conspiracy against him has failed.
This is after all charges of fraud and corruption against him were provisionally withdrawn in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court.
One of Mapulane’s co-accused who had turned State witness has ditched the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), saying he lied when he said he had been involved in corruption with Mapulane.
This left the DPP without its strongest witness, throwing its case against the man dubbed “Mr Cash” into disarray.
Mapulane was dismissed by the municipality on allegations of corruption, but the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruled in his favour last year.
He was charged with IT specialist Justice Maphosa, Madibeng local municipality IT manager Xola Magwala and local attorney Vincent Nkuna for defrauding the municipality of millions of rand.
It was alleged that Mapulane – elected ANC provincial treasurer in the North West in 2010 – disregarded the municipality’s procurement policies to favour Maphosa.
Mapulane has also slammed the late former minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, saying he announced the charges against him before he had had a chance to respond to them.
Mapulane was elected to the ANC North West provincial executive committee as treasurer while he was facing the charges. This drew fierce criticism from Cosatu in the region last year.
This is Mapulane’s second victory in his legal and labour battles. The first was when the CCMA cleared him in his dispute with the Madibeng municipality.
Mapulane said on Monday that he had been vindicated.
“I have maintained all along that these allegations against me were politically motivated.”
Mapulane said Shiceka issued a statement in 2010 in which his suspension, and subsequent arrest, were announced.
“I was referred to in that statement as ‘Mr Cash’. I was not even given an opportunity to respond to the allegations against me,” he said.
He said he knew who the people were who issued a document that was used against him by the municipality when he was suspended.
“I also know how the document was distributed and how the ANC caucus (in the Madibeng municipality) was instructed to suspend me.”
Mapulane said he took the municipality to the CCMA, which ordered that he be reinstated and that he receive compensation from the municipality.
“After discussing the CCMA’s decision with some of my colleagues in the ANC, I decided not to go back to the municipality.”
Madibeng’s spokesman, Tumelo Tshabalala, confirmed yesterday that Mapulane was no longer in the employ of the municipality.
“He was dismissed by the disciplinary committee (last year), but subsequently won the dispute and was reinstated by the CCMA in January, retrospectively,” Tshabalala said.
“The municipality entered into a settlement agreement with Mr Mapulane to resign with effect from the end date of his employment contract, April 2012.”
Medupe Simasiku, spokesman for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for the Gauteng North region, said on Monday that charges against Mapulane had only been withdrawn provisionally.
“Our strongest witness has now turned around and claimed that he was lying and will no longer testify against him,” Simasiku said.
“This is a problem. We have provisionally withdrawn the charges so we can make further investigations and gather more facts.
“This will afford us a chance to get more evidence.
“We are confident that we will reinstate the charges once further investigations are completed.”
The ANC in the region has welcomed the decision, saying it vindicates Mapulane and the ANC members who voted him in as provincial treasurer.
Pretoria News