/ 27 June 1997

Heat is on Mpumalanga MEC

The Heath special investigative unit turned its microscope on Mpumalanga this week, reports Justin Arenstein

THE tribulations of Mpuma-langa’s disgraced former MEC for safety and security, Steve Mabona, may just be starting after South Africa’s most powerful investigative unit this week started probing his financial management of state funds over the past seven years.

Mabona was forced to resign five weeks ago, just hours before the damning Moldenhauer Report on Corruption and Fraudulent Licences was made public.

The report recommended his immediate dismissal on the grounds that he had failed totally to curb corruption within his department, had repeatedly interfered in internal control mechanisms and had abused his position in arranging irregular learner’s and driver’s licences for parliamentary deputy speaker Baleka Mbete- Kgositsile.

Although strictly outside the scope of the Moldenhauer report’s mandate, it also found that Mabona had allowed junior staff in his “personal secretariat” to travel extensively around the country and live it up at luxury hotels at state expense.

Mabona himself was slated for repeatedly booking himself into expensive Johannesburg hotels while he lived in Bryanston.

The outspoken former MEC’s conduct over the past three years, however, is just a small part of the new forensic investigation by the Heath special investigative unit, which will also be looking at Mabona’s conduct while he served as an elected official in the former homeland of KwaNdebele.

“Mabona has become our number one priority in this part of the country,” the unit’s head, Judge Willem Heath, said this week. “We want to set a precedent to let officials everywhere know that your position and status cannot protect you, and that regardless of how long ago the state was defrauded, we will reclaim the money from the offenders, even if it means selling their houses or other assets.”

The unit, which has worked primarily in the Eastern Cape to date, has reputedly already recovered upwards of R10-billion for the state by using its wide-ranging executive powers, including the same judicial authority as a civil high court.

Judge Heath and four senior investigators launched their investigation into Mabona by questioning sacked Mpumalanga traffic director Henry Brazer and his former finance head, Frederick Schnetler, for three hours on Wednesday about the “seeming vast amounts of money” irregularly spent on hotel and transport expenses.

Judge Heath confirmed to the Mail & Guardian that the unit would also be investigating whether the expenses involved in sending a state vehicle and driver to fetch Mbete-Kgositsile from Johannesburg to Delmas for the issue of her invalid licences should be claimed back from those involved.

“What strikes us about this investigation is that there appears to have been a long- established pattern of misappropriation,” adds the unit’s investigation manager, Jonathan Dutton.

Mpumalanga’s recent series of scandals and corruption allegations has prompted the unit to set up its first “field office” in Nelspruit, where unit members are also investigating the dubious transfer of a state farm to Enos Mabuza, the National Parks Board chair and forerunner in the premiership race to replace Mathews Phosa should he be appointed to national office.

The transfer of farms to Mangisi Zitha, South Africa’s ambassador to Mozambique and former KaNgwane chief minister, current parliamentarian Professor Simon Ripinga and Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders member Tikhontele Dlamini is also being investigated.

The unit, in conjunction with the Office of Inland Revenue, is also probing various unnamed provincial politicians for avoiding paying income tax.

In addition, the unit is probing land deals in the former KwaNdebele area, where residents paid officials for farms but never actually received legal transfer or title deeds.

Similar investigations in the Eastern Cape, as well as investigations into illegal occupation of state land, have included prominent names such as Clarence Makwetu, the former Pan Africanist Congress leader.

Mabona’s political future within the African National Congress and his continued legislative salary will be discussed during a provincial executive meeting this Sunday. Mabona is expected to attend. – African Eye News Service