Motsoeneng mum on Free State RDP housing saga

“I don’t talk to newspapers,” was the response from embattled former SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng yesterday when asked for comment on weekend reports suggesting that he was being sued over a failed RDP housing saga in the Free State.

The reports stated that Motsoeneng and Nozuko Mbalula – the wife of Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula – are the trustees of companies that received tenders to build houses in the Free State but failed to deliver, despite receiving millions of rands.

When contacted by The Citizen yesterday, Motsoeneng refused to be drawn to respond: “I am not going to comment on that … thank you.”

R1 billon was allegedly paid by the Free State government over a period of five months to 106 companies, including those of Motsoeneng and Mbalula. This forms part of an affidavit submitted by department head Nthimose Mokhesi, filed in the Bloemfontein High Court.

The Sunday Times reported that Mosebenzi Zwane, while MEC for human settlements, approved the payments to companies before they had done any actual work for the government.

It is also alleged that Zwane and housing officials schemed to have the R1 billion spent fraudulently after former housing settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale said he would be allocating misused funds to other provinces. Zwane allegedly then began spending millions, paying this out to contractors.

He was consequently fired after the national department of human settlements shifted R263 million to other provinces. Mbalula and Motsoeneng, who are trustees of the Imbumba and MM development trusts, received R83 million to build 350 houses in Virginia and 100 in Bloemfontein. The houses are yet to materialise.

Meanwhile, it was further reported that the Special Investigating Unit probed the payments and its findings led the National Treasury to press the provincial department of human settlements to recover the funds. Mokhesi revealed that many invoices submitted were fraudulent and companies were even paid in December, when contractors had shut down.

Other companies, such as brickmaking giant Corobrik, were paid without submitting an invoice. The company has indicated it will pay the money back.