Drought money missing

Relief funds for KZN farmers

THE KwaZulu- Natal department of agriculture has instituted a forensic investigation into the disappearance of millions of rand meant for drought relief, MEC Themba Mthembu said.

Mthembu implicated department officials in the disappearance of an undisclosed amount of money, which was part of up to R100 million the department had released in the last financial year for droughtrelief funds to assist small-scale farmers in the province.

Addressing the media in Durban yesterday, Mthembu said he was livid because a large part of this money was “squandered”.

“We are busy investigating, after we discovered that part of the money was squandered. I think of a man from Jozini (northern KwaZulu-Natal) who lost 100 of his cattle.

“The government released the money, and Themba Mthembu (as an example) decided he deserved the money. This is our problem, and we are not going to hide it,” he said.

Mthembu said the department had appointed an independent company, which he declined to name, to conduct the forensic investigation.

He said Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu released a report revealing that money had been spent constructing “boreholes and dams that do not exist”.

“But the money was released by the department. We released between R75m and R100m to spend on fighting the drought, but there are concerns that this did not translate into any impact on the ground,” he said.

The Office of Premier Willies Mchunu was investigating operations of the supply-chain management in the department, he said.

“I will make sure that you get that report (on Mchunu’s investigation). I won’t sweep it under the carpet. I will rather be insulted or crucified for releasing it,” he said.

The department was facing “organisational ills”, the MEC said, adding that as a result of the officials’ ill-discipline, 26 projects earmarked for supporting women farmers had to be cancelled.

“The projects had been approved but they remain idle, while the women are waiting. The cabinet is saying there should be a stop to such things in the department.

“The (Makwetu) report revealed that we have approved many projects to help women fence their ploughing fields, and supplied water tanks or boreholes. The government policy says if the project remains inactive for a prolonged period it gets cancelled.”

Mthembu said there was no evidence that the 90 boreholes which were said to have been constructed, existed.

“Go to Mahlabathini (near Ulundi in northern KwaZulu-Natal) to see if you will find such boreholes. Is this what we have to tolerate?

“We should, together with the media, work on solving the problem. You should travel around the province to see if such boreholes exist.”

Mthembu also raised concern about the international fishing industry, which has rights to fish on South African shores, while locals were denied such rights.

“I wonder why we have been sleeping instead of dealing with this matter. Japanese fishing trawlers would collect plenty of fish offshore and sail back to Japan,” he said.

This, said Mthembu, was to the detriment of local fish traders on the south coast, as the current situation deprived them of fishing rights.

“We have come up with programmes for these people to get licences, because there are lots of households they support.

“We are giving people from Japan a right to fish while local people don’t have licences,” the MEC said.