Roux Shabangu's finger found in another state pie

The public works department has been found to have made another expensive lease agreement with businessman Roux Shabangu, this time for the head office of the Independent Complaints Directorate.

In June, the Mail & Guardian reported the story, but it received renewed attention from the Portfolio Committee of Police on Tuesday after it emerged the ICD’s rental bill ballooned 400% in the last financial year.

Beeld newspaper reported that the police watchdog body had spent R15.6-million on rent in the 2010/2011 financial year for its headquarters in Pretoria.

The year before, the bill was just R4.2-million. The increase was apparently because of the lease agreement with Shabangu.

ICD head Francois Beukman told Parliament on Tuesday that the ICD had moved to the new building, owned by Shabangu, last year.

He said the lease agreement was concluded by the department of public works.

Former public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde was sacked from Cabinet last week.

This came after the public protector found that she had acted unlawfully in approving multimillion rand lease agreements with Shabangu for police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban.—Sapa