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Smangaliso Mkhatshwa is tipped to replace Mathews Phosa in Mpumalanga after reports that the premier’s name was taken off the ANC’s election list. Justin Arenstein reports
Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa appears to have surrendered to his detractors within the African National Congress and, despite heavy denials, is expected to formally resign from the government at the opening of the provincial legislature next week.
Provincial ANC leaders are already positioning themselves to welcome his most likely successor, Deputy Minister of Education Smangaliso Mkhatshwa.
Although both the ANC and Phosa’s office denied the persistent rumours, the Mail & Guardian has established that Phosa is already preparing to move out of his official residence.
Phosa has asked the Mpumalanga Development Corporation for between R550 000 and R650 000 to compensate him for renovations and other improvements to the controversial Tekwane Estate house.
Phosa’s office would only confirm that he had asked the corporation to value the house. He moved into the house just before the 1994 elections but was almost immediately embroiled in a scandal with revelations that he and other top party members on the estate were only paying monthly rents of between R100 and R200.
A secret provincial cabinet report drafted by the provincial finance head, Sam Cronje, and the internal audit unit director, Huffy Pott, warned Phosa that the situation would embarrass the provincial government if ever leaked.
The report added that “political nepotism” appeared to have played a role during the allocation of houses to provincial legislature members and other ANC members. Pott also warned that the government should abandon all plans to sell the houses to the new occupants at what he called ridiculous book values.
The report was largely ignored until it leaked to the press, when the rents were increased to market-related rates and plans to sell the houses were dropped. Phosa embarked on a series of renovations of his large home, despite the decision not to transfer ownership of the houses.
He insisted in public press releases that he financed the renovations through a personal home loan worth R700 000, but has consistently failed to explain how the loan was granted without his ownership of title deeds for the house.
Phosa’s latest attempts to claim compensation for the renovations are set to plunge him into new controversy. Suspended Mpumalanga Parks Board CEO Alan Gray admitted two weeks ago that he irregularly authorised R121 000 for garden landscaping at the house.
Judge Willem Heath and various other forensic investigators are also still probing a R835 000 security wall around the house. The money was channelled to Phosa by Gray via the former KaNgwane Parks Corporation and was reportedly drawn from a former homeland low-cost housing budget.
The Mpumalanga Development Corporation previously paid an additional R400 000 for an electric fence around the security wall and a gatehouse. The renovations to the house itself appear to have been funded from Phosa’s pocket but the corporation has warned him that he will have to prove exactly how the money was spent.
Mpumalanga ANC representative and MEC for Public Works Jackson Mthembu refused to comment on either the house or speculation about Phosa’s resignation but dismissed earlier reports that the ANC had removed Phosa’s name from the provincial election list.
“It’s all utter nonsense. His name his still there and we are not going to release the list just to prove it. Our election lists are internal ANC documents and not public property,” he said.
Mthembu then insisted that there were no indications that Phosa was preparing to resign. “But I would not say anything to the press even if I had heard something,” he added.
Phosa’s representative, James Gibb, said the premier had no intentions of resigning. “Phosa is not going anywhere. He has absolutely no plans to tender his resignation because he has a duty to the people who elected him and that duty is to stay in government.”
ANC provincial executive members expect the resignation just before the ANC’s national executive committee convenes a meeting to finalise its election list next weekend.
Mkhatshwa originally hails from Barberton, Mpumalanga. “There’s a lot of speculation as we approach the elections and he’s being punted for a number of positions but we haven’t heard this one yet. The ANC’s deployment committee only sits next week, so nothing can actually be speculated on,” said Mkhatshwa’s representative, William Baloyi.
Phosa is not the only senior ANC member on tenterhooks. ANC national organiser Johannes ka Shabangu also faces the chop following confirmation last week that he pocketed cash “donations” from the controversial Dubai-based Dolphin Group in 1996. Shabangu accepted at least one payment of R50 000 but apparently failed to either declare or hand the money to the ANC as intended.
Dolphin’s senior vice-president, Mike Sharpes, confirmed that Shabangu solicited the money as a donation to the party. “It was suggested that this would demonstrate Dolphin’s commitment to South Africa. Our business objectives are of a long-term nature [and] we therefore felt it appropriate to make a contribution as a gesture of goodwill.”
The ANC is on record as never receiving money from Dolphin. Sharpes’s comment is the first concrete sign that the ANC’s national executive subcommittee probe into supposed misconduct by politicians in Mpumalanga is based on more than just political infighting.
It also calls the ANC’s role in the R25- billion Dolphin deal in Mpumalanga into question. The secretive deal gave Dolphin a 25-year commercial development monopoly on the region’s flagship game parks.
Shabangu was instrumental in introducing Dolphin to the Mpumalanga Parks Board, which irregularly paid for all his travel expenses to Dubai and London in 1996. The parks board subsequently went to great lengths to hide his involvement. Gray has admitted to using his travel agency, Travel Today, to issue pro forma invoices obscuring Shabangu’s expenses.
The parks board’s suspended finance director, Nico Krugel, has also admitted in a signed confession that the parastatal leased an expensive house for Shabangu in Sandton when he was promoted from ANC provincial treasurer in Mpumalanga to national organiser.
Gray allegedly conspired to cover up the payments during a probe by the auditor general. Judge Heath is probing the incident.
Gray has previously accused Shabangu of helping to establish a secret network of more than 32 front companies designed to win government tenders and then funnel the money into the ANC’s 1999 election coffers. The network is controlled by three trusts and has already won a series of multimillion-rand contracts in Mpumalanga, including a R2-million security deal, a R1,4-million furniture contract and a series of large construction tenders.
Shabangu refused to take questions on any of the charges this week but ANC national representative, Thabo Masebe, confirmed that the party’s subcommittee probe would be interviewing him.
“The probe was established to look into all corruption allegations in Mpumalanga and while I don’t want to comment on specific charges yet, it will be speaking to Shabangu about his role as Mpumalanga treasurer,” said Masebe. – African Eye News Service