Officials trying to salvage North West threatened

MPS HAVE expressed their shock that administrators appointed to run provincial departments in North West have been threatened following the central government’s interventions.

The threats came as Justice Minister Michael Masutha told Parliament yesterday that probes had been instituted by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to get to the bottom of the rot in the province, after billions were lost due to irregular expenditure over the years.

But it was the report tabled by Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma which revealed that the seven administrators appointed to run North West had received threats.

Dlamini Zuma said progress had been made in the province and that the situation was showing that it was beginning to stabilise.

MPs demanded that action be taken against those threatening the administrators, saying they cannot be allowed to halt the interventions that were pulling the province out of its dire straits.

The DA’s Mergan Chetty said they would not allow the people who brought North West to its knees to threaten the administrators.

“Those who collapsed this province cannot be permitted to threaten the people who came to help. This means they haven’t embraced the interventions,” Chetty said.

Mntomuhle Khawula of the IFP said they were concerned about the safety of the administrators, adding that law-enforcement agencies must step in order to rescue the situation.

The ANC’s Jomo Nyambi said this could jeopardise the team’s intervention process, and called for speedy action against the perpetrators.

He said the administrators were doing a good job of trying to fix the province, and that the state cannot allow that work to come to nought.

Dlamini Zuma said it was unacceptable that there were threats being made against the officials, and it was the duty of the law-enforcement agencies to ensure they were protected.

The administrators had been deployed from the different national departments to take over the running of the province.

Masutha said the SIU would commence with investigations into some of the irregularities in the province. The findings of the auditor-general had pointed to escalating irregular expenditure over four years.

Masutha said the justice and security cluster had been involved in the probes in the matters of North West and was preparing a report.

But their work had also been “distracted” by the Constitutional Court judgment on the National Prosecuting Authority, as there was now a transition from its former head Shaun Abrahams to the new boss.

Masutha said there were also matters being investigated by the Hawks in North West, which had been referred to the SIU. Seven proclamations would be sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his approval.