Bloemfontein - Public Protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, says investigations into the Free State provincial government project - Operation Hlasela - and the taxi rank in the Bloemfontein CBD are almost complete. She says her office is, however, still due to write reports on the two cases.

Mkhwebane says her office has committed to prioritising cases which have been pending for more than two years and to at least complete them before the end of this fiscal year. “The Hlasela matter is also in the final stages, the investigations are complete and there will be a report written, but writing a report includes whether the compilation of the report will have a person implicated, if not we will just write a closing report. The taxi rank matter is also finalised, we will be issuing it.”

Mkhwebane says she will issue these reports by the end of April.

The office of the Public Protector, under Thuli Madonsela, had previously issued a report on Operation Hlasela. She found that the campaign Free State Premier Ace Magashule launched in 2011 for service delivery‚ was also used to endorse the ANC's election campaign ahead of the elections; undermining the principle of fair play by giving the ANC an unfair advantage over other political parties in the run-up to the 2009 and 2011 elections. The ANC, however, asked for the report to be reviewed.

The R400 million taxi rank in the Bloemfontein CBD, on the other hand, was declared "non-operative" after taxi owners refused to operate from there. They claimed the taxi rank’s structure was defective and needed reworking before they could use it. 

Katleho Morapela/OFM News