Msimanga to visit Makhura’s ‘fishy Bosasa prawn farm’ for answers

Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga will be inspecting Premier David Makhura’s failed prawn farm in Mogale City, Krugersdorp tomorrow in an effort to get answers on the status of the project which should have created jobs.

Msimanga will be joined by the DA’s Mogale City constituency head Alan Fuchs, the DA’s West regional chairperson Evert du Plessis, and DA local councilors.

According to a 2015 Citipress report, the company behind the farm on the West Rand is controversial facilities management company Bosasa, which is under investigation for bribes paid to senior correctional services employees to procure government tenders.

Makhura during a 2015 budget speech said the government would partner with the private sector to improve the aquaculture potential of the western corridor on the West Rand, in regard to the breeding of prawns.

Msimanga will be in Mogale City to asses the state of the prawn farm project, which would have created 6,520 jobs over three years. He will later continue to the Chamdor Industrial Park 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.

The report alleges Bosasa kept the project under wraps even though their website indicated that there was an acquaculture project that would be situated down the road from its offices in Luipaarsdsvlei in Krugersdorp.

“The project is aptly named Bio-organics,” Bosasa wrote in a newsletter on the website. “Bosasa has a unique approach to aquaculture. Not only does it have the potential to contribute to [the] rural development plans of our nation, but it also promises to bring employment to these almost abandoned parts of the country,” read the site’s description.

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