Zwane has ‘uninspiring’ track record
Critics have suggested that the new Minister of Mineral Resources was chosen because of his ties to the Guptas.
|||Whatever factors President Jacob Zuma took into consideration when choosing Mosebenzi Zwane as his new Minister of Mineral Resources, his track record in government seems not to have been among them.
The controversy over Zwane’s role, while he was the Free State MEC for Agriculture, in a R570 million state dairy project, has been widely reported, as have his ties to the politically connected Guptas.
The government report on the Waterkloof scandal – when a commercial jet carrying guests en route to a Gupta family wedding landed at the military air base – noted that Zwane had received an Indian state minister who later attended the function.
The invitation was used as a pretext for claiming diplomatic status for the wedding party.
Critics have suggested Zwane was chosen because of these connections to the Guptas and have pointed to his lack of experience in the mining sector as cause for concern at a critical moment for the struggling industry.
But Zwane’s prior performance in government was equally uninspiring.
His term as executive mayor of the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality from 2006 was characterised by disclaimers from the auditor-general and culminated in it being placed under administration shortly after Zwane was appointed MEC for Co-operative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements in 2009.
The 2009 attorney-general’s report on the municipality found, among others, that the mayoral vehicle bought for R620 000 had been recorded under operating expenses instead of as a fixed asset, documentation for investments to the tune of R48.2m could not be found, as well as for R14.56m recorded in journal entries under cash and bank.
The attorney-general found a bank account with a balance of R600 439 that was not included in the records.
“I was unable to confirm the total extent of income, expenditure, assets or liabilities that might result from this unrecognised bank account,” then attorney-general, Terence Nombembe, said in his report. An accumulated surplus of R66.24m declared in 2008 was restated in 2009 as R9.46m without adequate documentation to confirm the accuracy of the reduction of the amount by R56.78m.
Nombembe found R3.4m in fruitless expenditure and unauthorised expenditure, which had not been disclosed by the municipality in its financial statements, to the tune of R6.737m.
Remuneration of councillors of R2.7m was incorrectly recorded in general expenditure. By the time the municipality was placed under administration in November 2009, about six months after Zwane became the MEC and, ironically, on his advice, it had “ceased to function completely”, according to a report presented in Parliament by his department.
All of the municipality’s senior management posts were vacant except for the community services manager. The chief financial officer and municipal manager were both leaving, having previously been “at each other’s throats” and the council was unable to take any decisions.
Though Zwane, as mayor, was not the accounting officer, the state of the municipality mere months after his departure infuriated MPs when his department presented its progress report in the National Council of Provinces in July 2010.
Zwane was absent from the presentation due to illness, but his officials were slammed for the sketchiness of the report and sent packing to prepare a more comprehensive account of what had been done.
His tenure as an MEC was also not an unqualified success.
Counting in his favour, the attorney-general’s report on local government of 2011-12 showed there had been some improvement in audit outcomes of Free State municipalities, with six out of 24 bettering their previous performance. But just seven received unqualified audits that year, three had not completed their audits, 10 had received adverse opinions or disclaimers and four had qualified audits.
Free State, with Gauteng, had regressed the most on findings on noncompliance with legislation, with findings in 96 percent of focus areas.
There were findings in 88 percent of cases on compliance with supply chain management requirements, covering contracts and quotations to the value of R92m.
Sunday Independent