Mahumapelo faces graft probe
The noose is tightening around North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo as the security cluster steps in to investigate allegations of corruption and maladministration against him and members of his executive.
Although she did not name Mahumapelo, Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday the security cluster would investigate allegations of corruption against “anyone and everyone” in North West.
It is understood that allegations of corruption and maladministration were a key part of the presentations made to the ANC by various structures of the ANC-led alliance calling on Mahumapelo to step down.
Mahumapelo has claimed that his initiative to root out historical corruption in the province has placed him in the firing line.
Calls for him to resign were prominent in violent protests, mainly in the provincial capital, Mahikeng, in the past month.
At the heart of these calls were allegations of corruption and state capture against him.
On Wednesday, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) took to the streets over the state of the health sector in the province and handed a list of demands to the provincial government.
Nehawu, a Cosatu affiliate, has been at the coalface of the fight against Mahumapelo.
Dlamini-Zuma addressed journalists on Wednesday afternoon about the national government takeover of the North West. She said charges would be brought against any individual who had a case to answer.
The security cluster was poised to investigate “anything and everything” brought to them, she said.
Dlamini-Zuma would not comment on Mahumapelo’s support of her in the ANC’s succession race culminating in its Nasrec conference, saying the matter at hand was a “government” one.
Mahumapelo, with former Free State premier Ace Magashule and their Mpumalanga counterpart, David Mabuza, were part of the so-called premier league, the key backers of Dlamini-Zuma’s failed attempt to succeed Jacob Zuma as the ANC president.
She said the government was “worried and concerned” about the situation in the province, hence the cabinet decision to invoke section 100 of the Constitution to allow for intervention in the province.
Ministers were still assessing the situation in each of their equivalent portfolios in the province before making a decision on placing departments under total or partial control of the national government, Dlamini-Zuma said.
Total control will mean the provincial executives will be sidelined and national bureaucrats and ministers will run the departments.
Dlamini-Zuma said that once the assessment had been done, the government will put in place plans to fix the problems in the province.