MONDAY, 8.00AM
MPUMALANGA Premier Mathews Phosa moved swiftly on Saturday, firing safety and security MEC Steve Mabona and suspending traffic director Henry Brazer and departmental head Stanley Soko.
The three men were blamed by chief magistrate Heinrich Moldenhauer for corruption within the traffic department that allowed the widescale issue of fake drivers’ licences. Phosa, who likened the corruption within his department to “worms crawling around a piece of meat”, will send a copy of the report to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki for a decision on steps against deputy parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile, whose fake Mpumalanga licence led to the probe. Kgositsile says she was “caught up in a web of improprietry of which I was unaware”.
Mabona, who says he resigned of his own free will, has announced that he will challenge the commission’s findings, accusing Moldenhauer of waging a vendetta against him.