Public protector probes alleged car rental ‘scam’ by KZN MEC

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has confirmed that a decision by the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) department of education (DoE) to hire a luxury car for MEC Kwazi Mshengu – at a cost of almost half a million rand for less than six months – is being investigated by the provincial offices of the public protector (PP).

As the complainant in this issue, the DA was invited to make further submissions to the PP’s investigating team. This was done at their offices earlier this week, said DA MPL Dr Imran Keeka.

“At the heart of the matter is the fact that MEC Mshengu and his department spent almost R500,000 – nearly R100,000 per month – on hiring a luxury BMW X7 over some five months.

“This while there were two other official vehicles at the MEC’s disposal, as well as his own personal vehicle which he is lawfully entitled to use for official work. The MEC is now using his own car after one of the official cars was allegedly tampered with and dubbed unusable. There are also currently no details of the whereabouts of the other departmental vehicle.”

Keeka said the DA regards it as extremely unfortunate that such a large sum of money was spent on car hire given that the DoE in KZN was so cash-strapped.

“This is money that could have been used to eradicate pit latrines or address crumbling classrooms all over our province.

“While the PP’s office cannot make any information public during their investigation, they have assured the DA that they will continue to perform their duty until they finalise the probe. They were unable to confirm a completion date which is reasonable given that an investigation of this nature is not always straight forward.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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