Report to ‘please explain’ R20m
ECDC ‘to be called to account’
THE office of premier Noxolo Kiviet is expected to table a report on its investigation into how more than R20-million for the Nelson Mandela memorial was spent by the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC).
The report will be tabled to the executive council (exco) later this month.
Kiviet’s office, led by provincial director-general Mbulelo Sogoni, has already met with the provincial treasury, economic development and the roads and public works departments.
The premier’s spokesman Mahlubandile Qwase yesterday confirmed meetings had already taken place and that a report will be tabled to the next exco meeting.
The executive mandated Kiviet’s office to institute investigations after it transpired that some of the money was used to buy T-shirts and food.
This was in contravention of National Treasury instructions that government money could only be used for the transport of mourners and securing venues for memorial services.
Qwase said the ECDC board would be called to account on the expenditure once the completed report had been discussed by the team of MECs.
The investigation follows a Daily Dispatch exposé last month, which revealed more than R22-million had been spent during the period of Madiba’s funeral. Of the amount, R5-million was spent on T-shirts, R333 360 on hamburgers at McDonald’s and R441 560 on fried chicken.
The money was diverted from a R330-million social infrastructure grant, which provincial treasury channelled to implementing agent ECDC.
ECDC’s administration tabled a report to its board last month showing the money was spent on instructions from provincial treasury, with the report suggesting claims for the Mandela funeral preparations could leap to more than R90-million.
The board suspended ECDC CEO Sitembele Mase four days after the report was tabled, with fellow board member Reggie Naidoo stepping in.
Qwase said the money was earmarked, not only for the memorials and the funeral arrangements, “but also for infrastructure-related issues around the area where the funeral took place”.
“ECDC was assigned to pay using the money allocated to them. This was deliberately done by exco because there was no department that has budgeted for any eventuality of Mandela’s death,” he said.
Asked about the more than R700 000 spent on takeaways, Qwase said it was used to feed police and marshals who had camped for three days in the Mthatha/Qunu area where Madiba’s funeral took place.
Meanwhile, Kiviet officially launched the provincial Freedom Month celebrations at State House in Bhisho yesterday.
Kiviet said corruption in the province was embedded in the system and did not come to the fore during the democratic dispensation, but was more rife in the apartheid era.
During the launch, the premier reflected on how the province had progressed in realising the goals of socioeconomic development since the dawn of democracy in 1994. —