Nkandla architect trial date in June

THE litigation involving Nkandla architect Minenhle Makhanya has been set down for trial in June next year.

This was revealed yesterday by Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head Andy Mothibi when the unit appeared before the justice and correctional services portfolio committee to give account on its 2017-18 finances.

“We have at last received a court date and the court date is in June 2019,” Mothibi said.

He added that pre-trial and joinder applications had all been done in the long-standing civil matter.

“We are of the view there should not be any pre-litigation issues that arise. We want to push for that trial to go on as scheduled,” he said.

The Nkandla civil action, among 26 pursued by the SIU, is a sequel to irregularities picked up in the R240 million upgrade made to former president Jacob Zuma’s private homestead.

Former public protector Thuli Madonsela found that some upgrades were not security-related.

Zuma was later ordered to pay back R7.8m after Madonsela found that he and his family unduly benefited from the upgrade.

Yesterday, the SIU told MPs it had obtained a clean audit report for the second time, but auditor general Kimi Makwetu found it had incurred R1.5m in irregular expenditure.

This was due to two service providers used without following proper supply chain management and another where no proper deviation in tendering was followed.

While the MPs commended the SIU for the clean audit, they were concerned about the irregular expenditure and failure to meet all its targets.

“From an integrity institution like yourself, we don’t want any irregular expenditure, especially on supply chain management and compliance with legislation,” committee chairperson Refiloe Mothapo said.

Mothibi said that as an organisation investigating irregular expenditure, it needed to ensure that they led by example.

“We have developed an action plan to clear the audit findings as raised by the auditor general during their audit and are currently progressing positively against the end of financial year deadline,” he added.

Mothibi said it aimed for 100% achievement on its targets. The SIU had aimed to recover R120m but only recovered R33m in the financial year under review. This was partly blamed on the slow pace of civil litigation, but a Special Tribunal is on the cards to help speed up these matters.

“It has now progressed to a stage where the president is satisfied with the process, we can see the appointment of a Special Tribunal by the president,” Mothibi said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko could not be reached for comment by deadline.