Msimanga vows to expose Makhura after ‘fishy Bosasa prawn farm’ inspection

A few hours after he was selected as a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, the Democratic Alliance candidate for Gauteng premier Solly Msimanga has vowed to expose the lip service given by Gauteng Premier David Makhura to Mogale City residents.

Msimanga announced his resignation as Tshwane mayor last month, to focus on his run for Gauteng premier. Shortly after he was sworn in, Msimanga said he would hold premier David Makhura accountable for all the failed and empty promises made in the past five years. He said he was looking forward to the premiers “last” state of the province address, which would table an overview of Makhura’s performance over the last year.

According to Msimanga the year was filled with empty promises from the premier.

Msimanga inspected Makhura’s failed prawn farm in Mogale City, Krugersdorp, in an effort to get answers on the status of the failed project which should have created jobs.

In 2015, during his state of the province address, Makhura made a promise to establish an aquaculture project for the breeding of prawns on the West Rand which would create 6,512 jobs.

“Today [Tuesday] we visited the Bosasa-linked company Bio-Organics in Mogale City which failed to successfully establish a prawn farm on the West Rand. This prawn farm, which is now a white elephant, was the brainchild of the controversial Bosasa Group, which is currently under investigation for wide-scale corruption including the bribing of politicians and senior government officials for the procurement of government tenders.

“The prawn farm is alleged to have received the full support of the provincial government. The planned prawn farm envisaged by Makhura would have been a joint private-public private partnership between the Gauteng government and the private sector.”

Msimanga will investigate if there was any link between the Bosasa failed prawn farm and Makhura’s failed prawn farm, and whether the Gauteng province allocated any funds to the failed prawn farm.

Part of his trip today in Krugersdorp was also to asses the progress of the re-industrialiation and revitalisation of industrial parks as promised by Makhura during his State of the Province Address in 2017.

“Another example, is the failed re-industrialisation of Merafong, Kagiso and Chamdor (industrial parks) where there is no stimulus of the local economy as promised by Makhura,” he said.

“Visiting the Chamdor Industrial park in Mogale City today, it is clear how premier Makhura’s promises to create jobs and grow the economy is mere lip service. Upon our inspection, we established that a number of manufacturers closed down their businesses due to a lack of investment in the area and no plans by government to revive the local economy.”

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