?Deputy president David Mabuza. (Sumaya Hisham/Reuters)
Deputy president David Mabuza has urged law enforcement officials to “move speedily” to deal with alleged impropriety and wrongdoing in the North West province.
The deputy president said this in an oral reply to questions from members of Parliament.
He was asked whether reported divisions and instability within the leadership of the ANC, as recently highlighted by the ruling of the high court in the matter between the former premier of the North West, Supra Mahumapelo and the ANC, have an impact on the rolling out of public employment programmes and service delivery in general.
The North West has been mired in troubles, most notably in the months leading up to August 2018, when Mahumapelo was stripped of his powers by the ANC’s national executive committee following violent protests by communities that demanded that he resign.
The deputy president sought to allay the concerns of South Africans and the members of Parliament by outlining the progress made by the inter-ministerial task team in stabilising the situation in the platinum-rich province.
According to Mabuza, all necessary interventions were implemented, such as ensuring “effectiveness of internal governance structures is enhanced”, “strengthening of financial controls, governance and accountability within the provincial government” and the implementation of “sound financial management systems” as well as the appointment of a new premier and provincial executive.
The deputy president went on to mention that the directorate for priority crime investigation was handling 46 cases of theft, fraud and contraventions of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act in relation to government contracts in the North West.
Expanding on the concerns of opposition MPs surrounding the cases law enforcement agencies were dealing with, Mabuza said that “all we can say is that we are urging them to move fast on these cases so that we can see action.”
He continued that “as soon as these cases are in court, then people are able to see that there is progress. So we are urging our law enforcement agencies to also move speedily in terms of attending to these cases.”