MONDAY, 8.00AM
HOUSING director general Billy Cobbett, who denies that he has resigned, will report to work as usual this morning — to find out whether he still has a job.
On Friday, the Mail&Guardian reported that Cobbett had been fired after asking the auditor general to investigate the award of the R185-million Mpumalanga Housing Project to an unknown new company.
Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele denied that Cobbett was fired, saying he had resigned. Cobbett denies having resigned. The Democratic Party has called for a national asembly debate this week on the Cobbett affair.
MONDAY, 11.30AM
IT has emerged that national housing officials voiced concern at the R185-million Mpumalanga development at the heart of the Cobbett firing three days before its launch because it appeareed the project was overcharging taxpayers R33-million.
In March Motheo Construction signed an agreement with the Mpumalanga government to supply 10 500 low-cost houses under the government subsidy scheme. The scheme provides for a R15 000 subsidy on each low-cost house built. However, the Motheo contract also provided for an additional 15% (R23,6-million) bonus for the developers, as well as a further R9.7-million from the Bulk Connector Infrastructure grant to cover waterless toilets, even though toilets are supposed to be included in the R15 000 subsidy.
This was questioned three days before the launch of the project on April 21. This weekend, provincial housing officials produced an undated letter to Motheo from provincial housing department head Steve Ngwenya, marked “addendum to contract” in handwriting. The officials said the addendum was signed on the same day as the original contract, although it was only signed by Ngwenya. The addendum purports to question the need for the additional costs, but it has never been referred to in numerous exchanges concerning the deal.