Another head has rolled in the Eastern Cape agriculture department, in what is widely viewed as a government purge of ”the good guys” amid an investigation into the controversial Kangela empowerment land deal.
The department’s chief financial officer, Vusi Menzelwa, was suspended on Tuesday on 13 charges, some relating to Kangela. It is understood that other suspensions may follow, including that of the senior manager for agricultural research and technology, Lumkile Ngada, who asked the provincial treasury and auditor general for advice after former agriculture minister Max Mamase insisted he make irre- gular payments for the Kangela deal last year.
Three weeks ago, Mamase resigned after a list of questions arrived at his office from the Joint Anti-Corruption Team — an elite squad of investigators from the police and the National Prosecuting Authority deployed to the province — about his involvement in the Kangela deal and related matters.
The head of department, Amon Nyondo confirmed Menzelwa’s suspension. Nyondo said he could not comment further before the disciplinary hearing next week.
Athol Trollip, Eastern Cape leader of the Democratic Alliance, said he was ”quite amazed” by Menzelwa’s suspension, as he was one of the few people who had ”the courage to speak out … about the irregularities of the Kangela deal”.
The anti-corruption team has questioned Menzelwa and Ngada about their opposition to the deal.
In October last year the M&G reported that Mamase could allegedly have received kickbacks in the form of bond payments for his luxury East London house from a property development company called Parch Properties 17, of which Norman Benjamin, a wealthy farm owner in the Addo district, and his accountant Emiliya Peneva, are directors.
Benjamin is a participant in an agricultural empowerment deal allegedly irregularly financed by Mamase’s department. Mamase rode roughshod over a series of provincial finance regulations and ordered his department to fund the acquisition of a 49% share of Benjamin’s farms by an empowerment trust called Kangela. The farms are valued at R16-million. The shares were to be given to 44 of Benjamin’s employees with a view to developing them as future citrus farmers.
However, Mamase’s department ultimately transferred R15,68-million to make this possible. Through Uvimba, a parastatal that provides micro-financing to emerging farmers, the government paid nearly double what the shares were worth.
At a meeting of the Eastern Cape legislature’s agriculture committee in November, Menzelwa contradicted Mamase’s claim that the provincial treasury had approved the Kangela deal.
Menzelwa based his challenge on a letter, which the M&G has seen, the Treasury wrote to Mamase last year instructing him to withdraw from the Kangela deal because it appeared to be irregular.
Among the charges levelled against Menzelwa this week is that he misrepresented in his annual report the amount of money paid towards the Kangela deal. He said R18-million had been paid, when the correct figure was about R16-million.
He has also been accused of failing in his duties as chief financial officer by refusing to pay invoices to the tune of R3,2-million for various development projects on the Kangela farms.
The M&G was told that he had not paid the invoices because he was concerned that the Treasury had not approved the deal.
He has also been held responsible for an overspend of R70-million of the department’s budget. However, the agriculture department is one of a handful in the province that has received an unqualified audit report.
Mamase and Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela are close friends. Balindlela stopped an investigation by the provincial legislature into the affair, saying it should await a probe by the provincial Cabinet.
The investigation has never been reinstated.