Johannesburg - Former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane on Friday rejected claims he had authorised the prepayment of R1 billion for the Free State housing project which saw millions of rand being wasted in illegal pre-payments to contractors and suppliers for work not delivered.
Zwane was testifying before the Zondo Commission on the controversial Free State housing project which saw as much as R1 billion paid to around 106 contractors to build 14 000 houses during his time as an MEC in the Free State provincial government.
Despite earlier witness testimony from housing officials from the Free State placing him at the centre of orchestrating the prepayments scheme to suppliers and contractors allegedly specifically handpicked by him, Zwane vehemently denied those claims as he had also done in his previous appearance before the commission in September.
Zwane said during a meeting about the prepayment he had quizzed other officials on why they could not help contractors with the building materials so as to deal with issues that had been raised.
Zwane also denied he had threatened former Free State Housing head of department Mpho Mokoena with dismissal when asked about these allegations by the commission’s evidence leader advocate Paul Pretorious.
Pretorious had quizzed Zwane on an alleged meeting between Zwane and Mokoena during which Zwane had threatened Mokoena.
“There was no meeting between me and Mr Mokoena outside the formal meeting in which everybody was there. There was no such comment because if I remember well the end discussion of the meeting was actually in Mr Mokoena’s favour.
“The resolution was that the DG Mr Mmusi Tsoametsi should go and research broadly about all the issues which were raised in the meeting and report to the HOD which was Mr Mokoena. In that process it is my belief that Mr Mokoena would have then addressed whatever matter that was a concern to him,” said Zwane.
He also denied Mokoena’s claim he had used a SeSotho expression saying he would walk next to his shoes, meaning Mokoena would remain poor if he was not prepared to go along with the plan to make prepayments to suppliers, saying he did not recall making such a comment.
“I never said anything of that sort, in fact if we refer back to the investigations you would actually realise that the issue of advance payment was actually implemented before this document we’re talking about was finalised.
“In the meeting of the 18th of November as per the investigations, Mr Mokoena in a report to the investigators actually acceded to the point that when the meeting was discussing, that point of the advanced payment had already been done. It is here in black and white,” said Zwane.
Political Bureau