Mathews Phosa believes he is doing what he promised the people who voted for the ANC, writes Wally Mbhele
He sees himself as a crusader against officials who have given his province the reputation as the most corrupt in the country; a victim of an unfair and persecuting media, even a fall guy for the African National Congress.
But in his home at Nelspruit, Premier Mathews Phosa stands his ground. “I’m doing what people of Mpumalanga expect me to do on their behalf,” he claims, adding with a sigh: “In the process you earn many enemies.”
The Sunday Times recently dubbed Phosa’s province “Mamparalanga” in recognition of the succession of corruption scandals hitting his province.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to him within 24 hours of the ANC national working committee visiting his province. As expected, the cancer of corruption was raised during a meeting with Phosa and his provincial working committee.
But during this interview Phosa hit back, giving the other side of the story he feels is never told. “Those who plunder the provincial coffers are on the run and this is not reported in the press,” says Phosa.
Because corruption is exposed both by members of his government and the media, he thinks it’s easier to label Mpumalanga as the most corrupt province in the country. He backs this argument by pointing out that Mpumalanga’s economic growth is one of the fastest; leaping from number six to number four since the ANC assumed power.
Recently, the shock surprise was the suspension of MEC for Finance Jack Modipane, who is facing allegations of signing over R40-million in promissory notes to companies in the United States, using state land as collateral. Modipane’s suspension shocked even the opposition as he was generally considered one of Phosa’s close political allies.
Phosa is relieved that the promissory notes have been recovered by the Heath special investigation unit. Modipane’s guilt or innocence is yet to be proven. “The inheritance of apartheid parastatals caused massive political damage. They’re still used as a centre of corruption schemes and syndicates. A total re-look of all these institutions is needed,” he reckons.
But what worries Phosa most is the press which “wrongfully crucifies” him. “It is wrong to confuse the message with the messenger. You don’t call a person who fights crime a criminal. In simple grammar you are deliberately making a mistake of killing the messenger who’s carrying out the president’s call to fight corruption. What is happening in this instance [Mpumalanga] is that the messenger is crucified.”
Justifying his criticism of the press for focusing only on corruption while ignoring his crusade against the rot in government, Phosa stresses that he’s not “filing a plea in mitigation of corruption. But I’m putting forward a fact. Corruption did not end with the old order. There are people who came after 1994 and subjected themselves to corrupt tendencies. There is an example of Cynthia Maropeng [ANC deputy speaker in the legislature] in our case. She got hoodwinked by the shrewd officials into joint shadowy ventures. We admit that. We took exception publicly to these matters.”
Maropeng allegedly transferred more than R1-million into her personal bank account and is facing a series of fraud charges in court. She was fired from the legislature and the ANC after a commission instituted against Phosa made far-reaching findings against her.
Phosa claims his fight against corruption exposed one of the masters of deception in South Africa – self-styled political analyst Eugene Nyathi, who with lawyer Ntsoaki Mohapi was employed as a consultant to restructure the Mpumalanga Development Corporation. Nyathi paid himself a salary of R15 000 an hour.
“In that case it was a pure case of self-enrichment. Eugene was a national figure in this country. He’s disappeared from the scene like he’d never existed before. We … got back from him the amount of R700 000. He paid that money within three hours of my demand that he pay it back. Nobody is prepared to print this, they keep on saying there was Eugene Nyathi and there’s no payment. It’s not true,” argues Phosa.
“Mohapi,” according Phosa, “disputes that she received an incorrect fee. She argues the fee she received she was entitled to. We dispute that and we as government ceded our action against her to the Mpumalanga Development Corporation so that they can sue. They’ve issued summons against Ntsoaki, but we don’t control the court roll and the speed at which things are dealt with there. We control the other arms of government and we have moved towards taking action in that case.”
Phosa again instituted a commission of inquiry when the scandal surrounding the awarding of the R10-million tender to the Motheo housing project was exposed. It emerged that proper procedures were not followed when the tender was awarded to an alleged close friend of Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele.
Phosa says senior members of the provincial housing board, its chair, Saths Moodley, and another senior member, Job Mthombeni, were dismissed long before the commission of inquiry was established. “By the time it started working, it was history that they’d ever worked for the housing board. We took a proactive action.”
Another case in point, recalls Phosa, was the licensing scandal involving Deputy Speaker Baleka Kgositsile- Mbete. As a result of the commission Phosa instituted, MEC for Safety and Security Steve Mabona resigned and Kgositsile-Mbete was forced to surrender her illegally obtained licence.
“All these inquiries were open, oop oog. Give me a track record like that in this country? It’s not there. We believe by exposure you deter. We don’t deter by hiding. If people do things and know they are hidden, then it means you encourage it. The masses in this province applaud what we are doing. Overwhelmingly. We are doing what we promised them, to fight corruption in government.
“If government does nothing about it, it will paralyse the smooth running of governance. We don’t sit here and agonise and scratch each other’s back because that will paralyse us.”