POLOKWANE – “Our understanding is that the matter is exhausted and must be allowed time to rest,” he said. “As an institution, we have engaged all the role players. On the war of words between two politicians, our view is that no specific individual was held liable for the problems and our position as government remains just that. We also call for calm and plead with those negatively affected to allow us time and space to address their concerns and we will do that with outstanding levels of professionalism as we always do.”
He added government has an open door policy to allow anyone with issues to raise it with them.
This followed Tooley having said on national TV that Masondo and Julius Malema were among those who have contributed to the province being placed under administration in 2011. Tooley stated that contracts for infrastructure were awarded without correct due processes being followed.
Masondo reacted strongly, saying in a statement that it was a lie and that Tooley was resuscitating the lie that the province was bankrupt to divert the public’s attention from maladministration and corruption allegations in the current Limpopo government. He said Limpopo was never bankrupt and there never was an additional amount paid by National Treasury to rescue the province from bankruptcy and that National Treasury deliberately withheld money from the province.
Seloba on Monday confirmed it was a fact that the province experienced financial challenges and had an overdraft of R1,2 billion in December 2011, and there was a request for more money, which was rejected by the National Treasury. “These facts have never been challenged anywhere and will remain as such,” he said.
The then minister of finance, Pravin Gordhan, took charge of five Limpopo departments on 11 December 2011.
Apart from ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) Member, Dikeledi Magadzi, whom Malema once accused of orchestrating a move to get him and Mathale arrested by the Hawks, the rest of the affected MECs were thought to be part of the Kgalema Motlanthe slate of the ANC.
The unprecedented move, which saw the national government strip mostly Malema-aligned MECs of their executive authority, was said to blow wide open the road to the ruling party’s national elective conference in Mangaung, Free State, the next year and allegedly clipped the wings of a countrywide network of fledgling tenderpreneurs, allegedly behind Malema’s political campaigns, who used Limpopo as a cash-cow.
The cash flow problem caused a runaway overdraft of more than R1,7 billion, a shortage in payments for operational costs and lack of money to pay civil servants’ salaries. The then premier, Cassel Mathale’s supporters, supported by the Limpopo Youth League, were convinced the action by the cabinet was a political ploy by Jacob Zuma aimed at neutralising Mathale prior to the conference.
Media reports would have it that the crisis was caused largely by the Limpopo government’s decision to shift money into infrastructure development programmes from operational costs and salary budgets. Senior bureaucrats said the problem was compounded by the sacking of competent officials such as former Treasury MEC, Saad Cachalia, and Rob Tooley, the ex-head of Limpopo Treasury, who were forced out because they resisted political interference in the management of the public purse.
