/ 10 February 2005

Bring Mamase to book, urges public service watchdog

Former Eastern Cape agriculture MEC Max Mamase should be criminally charged, the Grahamstown-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Wednesday.

PSAM director Colm Allan also urged Mamase’s wife, provincial social development MEC Neo Moerane-Mamase, to follow his example and quit.

Mamase, who is being investigated by the Joint Anti-Corruption Task Team, handed his resignation to provincial premier Nosimo Balindlela this week.

Allan said Mamase’s resignation should be seen in the context of reports that he and Moerane-Mamase received payments from a land developer involved in an irregular land deal with Mamase’s department.

Allan said that at Mamase’s personal insistence, over R30-million of public funds was irregularly committed to the Kangela project, a supposed black empowerment deal, involving citrus farmer and property developer, Norman Benjamin. – Sapa