Cyril’s 100-day gift to E Cape

FOR nearly five years, the Nelson Mandela funeral funds scandal and the events leading up to it have cast a dark shadow over the Eastern Cape.

What was meant to be a time to mourn and honour a son of the soil was soon eclipsed by allegations of large-scale looting of the public purse.

Government officials, politicians and public servants are among those accused of having a hand in the misappropriation of millions of rands of taxpayers’ money.

In early 2014, just weeks after Mandela was laid to rest at his home in Qunu, this newspaper published the first in a series of articles exposing the alleged misuse of state funds intended for memorial and funeral services.

The matter was eventually taken up by the office of the public protector, who last year recommended that further action be taken.

Finally last Friday, a government gazette was published in which President Cyril Ramaphosa called for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to investigate just how the Mandela funds had been spent by the Eastern Cape government, some of its municipalities and other organs of state.

The proclamation was signed off earlier this month and gazetted on Friday, opening the way for full-scale investigation into alleged wrongdoing.

The order also seeks to recover any losses suffered during the memorial and funeral services.

In her 2017 report titled Mandela Funeral, public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane asked then president Jacob Zuma to issue a proclamation for the SIU to investigate all those implicated. She took aim at the provincial government’s director-general, Marion Mbina-Mthembu, saying: “The conduct of Ms Mbina-Mthembu in approving and authorising procurement of goods and services relating to the funeral was in violation of the provisions of Section 217 of the Constitution, Section 38 of the PFMA, treasury regulations.”

Mbina-Mthembu, who was the DG for the department of provincial planning and treasury at the time, has since hit back at the public protector and demanded a review of her report.

She has denied responsibility and said it was the executive council who took the resolution. The outcome of the review is not yet known.

The decision by Ramaphosa to act on the public protector’s recommendations and call for a probe into the funeral scandal could be a step in the right direction for his presidency as he has vowed to stamp out corruption in the public and private sectors.

The proclamation was gazetted on the day he marked 100 days in office.

Delivering his maiden State of the Nation Address earlier this year, Ramaphosa said: “This is the year in which we will turn the tide of corruption in our public institutions.

“The criminal justice institutions have been taking initiatives that will enable us to deal effectively with corruption.”

The state’s action on the funeral scandal is long overdue. For the Eastern Cape, the SIU investigation may finally bring those implicated in the shameful looting of taxpayers’ money to book, and will hopefully clear the dark cloud that has been hanging over the province for nearly five years.