Daily Dispatch
Clock ticks on funeral scandal
THE old adage that the wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine, is certainly no more true than in the prolonged case of the Mandela funeral funds scandal.
The scandal involves some R90-million that was spent “irregularly” on the funeral of Nelson Mandela in December 2013 – already nearly four years ago.
To date there has been only one criminal conviction – that of a man and his company used as a conduit for R5.9-million spent by the Buffalo City Metro on bogus transport for people to attend memorial services in and around the municipality.
Executives at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), which acted as an implementing agent in the irregular spending of some R35-million, have been axed but not charged criminally.
Incredibly, the trial of the only senior local politicians who have been charged in connection with the disgraceful incident has not yet got out of the starting blocks, despite starting way back in June 2014.
Almost every delaying tactic in the book – from disputing the completeness of charge sheets to questioning the impartiality of the magistrate – has bounced between magistrate’s court and high court.
It seemed at the beginning of this month after defence lawyers for the politicians finally dropped a long-running battle to have the magistrate recuse herself that at long last the public would get to hear the evidence against the politicians, and their answers. It was not to be. Instead, the state popped up with an application to separate the trials of the various accused. That matter will be heard at the beginning of next month, which means the chances of the cases starting will likely roll over to next year.
And the courthouse is not the only legal arena where the process of uncovering the shameful corruption of public spending on Madiba’s funeral has crept along at a snail’s pace.
The Office of the Public Protector has been working on its investigation since February 2014.
In May this year, the new protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who took over the investigation from her predecessor Thuli Madonsela, promised that the report on the investigation into the Mandela funeral funds scandal would be released “in about six weeks”.
She said all that was left in this “biggest investigation” was finalisation of section 79 notices – which offer implicated parties an opportunity to respond to allegations – and that the report should be published by early July. We still wait with bated breath. We can only hope that while the wheels are turning slowly, the grinding is indeed exceedingly fine.
This was a crime against our greatest political icon and cannot be allowed to fade away into obscurity over time.
We need to know exactly who stole what, and what action will be taken both to recover the public money stolen and against the thieves who pocketed it.
The clock is still ticking.