Patricia de Lille Minister of public works & infrastructure

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Covid-19 did nothing to build Patricia de Lille’s image as a corruption-buster.

While her department was tasked with the important job of setting up infrastructure such as field hospitals, and identifying quarantine sites, corruption has overshadowed everything else.

A storm is brewing around the construction of the Beitbridge border fence, which opposition MPS have called a R37m “washing line”. In a situation similar to a fiasco when De Lille was mayor of Cape Town — in which she allegedly sent an SMS to a councillor to indicate a preferred candidate for a project — the National Treasury has reportedly hinted that she had a preferred supplier or contractor in mind for the Beitbridge project.

The saga is now being probed by the Special Investigating Unit, and 14 senior officials in her department face disciplinary charges over alleged acts of fraud and misconduct.

February says the debacle has overshadowed much else of what De Lille has been doing. “Most reporting has centred on this controversy,” she says. “It has also allowed the DA the opportunity to take the point against De Lille, given the acrimonious parting she had from the party and also her position as executive mayor of Cape Town.”

Fikeni says it is because De Lille built herself up as a corruptionbuster that she has to suffer when corruption crops up in her own portfolio.

Mathekga says: “Where was she looking when she paid almost R40m for a fence? There is massive impropriety at the public works & infrastructure department, so I’ll give an E.”