Keep the spotlight on Filcon

THE CAPE Argus must be commended for continuing to expose the Filcon/DA corruption scandal (“ANC questions Public Protector probe of Filcon”, November 23). For the City of Cape Town to deny it was “involved in Filcon’s struggles” is disingenuous, given that R400 million of public funds were used to pay Filcon.

This despite the construction company facing eight liquidation applications in the High Court, three years prior to Filcon receiving its first tender from the DA administration.

It beggars belief the council can now wash its hands of this scandal given that several Cape Flats sub-contractors are still waiting to be paid with our public funds for work already completed more than two years ago.

One can only speculate as to what due diligence checks were implemented by the DA administration given the director of Filcon, Saul Loggenberg, has been banned from operating in Britain by the British Insolvency Service following similar liquidation scandals there.

And despite the DA’s Ivan Meyer previously claiming Filcon was “simply a case of a reputable contractor running into cash flow problems”, the Western Cape High Court turned down Filcon’s application for business rescue and granted a final order of liquidation in July 2014.

In a bizarre sequel, the previous investigator in the Public Protector’s office who handled the Filcon investigation, advocate Tyrone Jacobs now works in the provincial forensic division for Premier Helen Zille, that is, for the very DA administration implicated in the Filcon scandal.

For the sake of good governance and in the interests of transparency, Thuli Madonsela should be hauled before Parliament to explain her prejudice towards the DA and also for failing to finalise a fairly simple corruption investigation before she left office. COLIN ARENDSE Wynberg