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- The Zondo Commission found that a R1 billion housing project in the Free State was a debacle as no houses were delivered.
- It recommends that former minister Mosebenzi Zwane be investigated for his role in the project.
- The commission also took former Free State premier Ace Magashule to task for his failure to hold Zwane to account.
"Dismal failure - a debacle!"
This is how the State Capture Commission characterised a scheme worth R1 billion that should have delivered houses to the poor in the Free State during the reign of Ace Magashule as premier and Mosebenzi Zwane as housing MEC.
Zwane should be investigated for fraud, along with the former head of his department, the commission recommended. The presidency released the fourth part of the commission's report, chaired by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, on Friday.
In volume two, the commission described the Free State's R1 billion housing project of the 2010-2011 financial year.
It found that by the end of the 2010-2011 financial year, the Free State government, then under the leadership of former premier Ace Magashule, spent R500 million, but "there were either no houses that had been built for the poor people for whom the provincial government was required to build low cost houses or there were so few houses built compared to those that were supposed to have been built that they are not worth mentioning."
Zwane was the MEC for housing at the time.
READ | 'Rampant corruption': Mosebenzi Zwane, Rajesh Gupta and ex-Eskom bosses must be prosecuted - Zondo
During the 2010-2011 financial year, the Free State government allocated R1.3 billion to building houses to alleviate the then housing backlog of 200 000.
The Free State Department of Human Settlements failed to spend this budget, and the national Department of Human Settlements threatened to transfer some of the money to better performing provinces.
"A scheme was quickly devised for the money to be spent, which led to the province spending over R500 million by giving more than 100 contractors advance payments before any work was done," the report stated.
The report said:
"No procurement process was followed in respect of the contractors and the parties who supplied materials.
"The Free State Department of Human Settlements lost over R400 million in this way."
The commission had come to a damning conclusion about the project: "There is only one way to describe the R1 billion Free State housing project of the 2010/2011 financial year: 'dismal failure - a debacle!'"
The report also took Zwane to task for his poor performance and Magashule for his lack of oversight.
"Mr Mosebenzi Zwane failed dismally to provide leadership in the provincial Department of Human Settlements in 2010 with regard to the R1 billion housing project and the premier should have made sure that there were consequences for Mr Zwane," the report stated.
"However, the premier simply shifted him to another portfolio where he continued to occupy the position of MEC. After such dismal failure, Mr Mosebenzi Zwane should not have simply been shifted to another department as an MEC. The premier should not have allowed him to continue as MEC."
READ | Mosebenzi Zwane asked Guptas for a 'lift' to India in their private jet because of 'throat problems'
Zwane was shifted to the agriculture department, where, under his watch, the Estina/Vrede dairy farm scheme took place, with which the commission said it would deal with in a later report.
The commission found that Magashule must have been aware of what was happening in the housing department under Zwane's watch.
"It is totally unacceptable that the premier made no effective intervention."
The commission further found that Magashule should have been held accountable for his failure to ensure that Zwane and his department did their jobs.
It recommended that law enforcement agencies should investigate Zwane and Mpho "Gift" Mokoena, former head of the Free State Department of Human Settlements, for "fraud arising out of the misrepresentation on which the advance payment scheme was based with regard to the number of houses that the department said it could build between November/December 2010 and the end of March 2011 which was known to the department not to be true and not to be achievable, but which was done in order to prevent the national Department of Human Settlements from taking part of their allocated funds and giving them to better performing provinces".
After Zwane's stint in the Free State provincial government, former president Jacob Zuma elevated him to the national stage by appointing him as mineral resources minister in 2015.
In this role, he was a crucial cog in the Gupta's machinations.
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