Central SA
Hawks to be roped in over alleged property fraud in North West─── LUCKY NKUYANE 15:20 Wed, 13 Jul 2022
The North West Provincial Legislature Committee has threatened to rope in the Hawks to probe the alleged massive corruption and collusion involving its properties in other provinces, allegedly worth billions of rands.
The chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Aaron Motswana, tells OFM News that the committee will engage the Police, Hawks, the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) and the Auditor-General’s (AG) office to effect consequence management on any possible corruption and theft of the properties.
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He alleges that the government could have lost a massive R4.9 billion - calculated for the period between 2005 and 2009 - due to the non-collection of revenue from at least 98 000 properties.
Motswana says the money could have been lost because of illegal occupation, the unlawful and fraudulent sale of properties involving politicians, government officials and business associates. Motswana lambasted the North West Housing Corporation for the alleged lack of proper accountability of its cross-border properties in Gauteng and the Free State.
This follows after an oversight visit to assess properties in Gauteng, the Free State, and the Northern Cape, which were allegedly accumulated from the then Bophuthatswana regime led by Lucas Mangope. The Mangope regime is said to have also had properties in countries such as Israel, the United States of America and Vietnam, amongst others, where he used to house what they termed governors at the time.
“The housing corporation was asked to submit a comprehensive report and plans with timeframes on how it plans to manage the cross-border properties and vacant land.
“The Committee has vowed to leave no stone unturned in revealing the extent of theft and fraud committed by the lawyers, public servants and businesses. The wealth and assets of Bophuthatswana cannot be left exposed to looters and hyenas under the pretext and hypocritical principle of hating the former government. What the former government built and accrued was for the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the North West, it was not for hyenas disguised as businessmen and lawyers,” Motswana adds.
The North West Housing Corporation's CEO Mogodiri has declined to comment on the matter. However, the spokesperson of the North West Department of Human Settlements, Tsholofelo Mathibedi, told OFM News that the department cannot quantify the figures given by the committee chairperson at this stage. He says different processes have to take place to verify and quantify the figures contained in the allegations.
