Staff Reporter
Former Free State Human Settlements MEC Mosebenzi Zwane has told the State Capture Commission of Inquiry that the creation of a new housing database for contractors was agreed upon by the provincial executive council.
Zwane, who is currently appearing before the commission, said he was acting on an instruction given by the executive council for the implementation of a housing project worth about R1 billion.
About 500 000 houses were expected to be built when the project was signed off in 2010.
He told the commission that he was instructed to create a new contractor and supplier database after the open tender process was abandoned.
Zwane further denied that the open tender process for the housing project was abandoned because of him.
“The process was not abandoned because of me,” he said.
“It was abandoned because of the reasons that these officials have put here, which were not controlled by me,” added Zwane, referring to testimonies given before the commission by two former heads of the department, Gift Mokoena and Nthimotse Mokhesi.
Former chief finance officer Seipati Dlamini has also testified
All the officials have told the commission that Zwane managed procurement and people, but he says Mokoena and Dlamini approved the process.
“It was them (the officials) who said the database had been used in the department by my predecessors and, as a newcomer there, I agreed with that process for as long as it was going to help us move forward building houses,” Zwane said.
And when reminded by evidence leader Advocate Paul Pretorius that this was a new database created after a tender process had been abandoned and therefore illegal, the former MEC said he was not aware of it.
“No, I was not aware of it. As I said earlier on, I was told that was the process that had been followed before. I even asked ‘based on what? Is it the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act) process? They told me it’s a process under the Housing Act’,” said Zwane.
On Tuesday, Mokhesi told the commission that hundreds of millions of rands were misused as there was no value for money realised.
It has since emerged that by October 2010, no houses had been built and R200 million had been spent on surveys, title deeds and basic services.