Read on. I do not need to add anything further. I am punch drunk.
The IFP puts it best, "The IFP is alarmed at the expanding network of corrupt relationships across the different tiers of government in the province."
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Opposition political parties have reacted with shock to news that the disgraced former head of the agriculture and environmental affairs department, Jabulani Mjwara, could be awarded a multimillion-rand contract by the Msunduzi Municipality.
Mjwara left the agriculture department last year after a damning report into the mismanagement of finances which cost taxpayers well over R120-million.
It was reported on Monday that Mjwara's company, Plant Waves 399, was the front-runner to win a contract to dredge the Camps Drift canal although the company had apparently no demonstrable dredging experience.
The company's tender price is R12,8-million.
It was reported early this year that Mjwara had been paid a massive performance bonus after walking away from the agriculture department just days before he was due to appear before a disciplinary hearing into maladministration.
Reacting to the latest development, DA KwaZulu-Natal caucus leader Roger Burrows said that allowing Mjwara to continue to benefit from government business in the form of a potentially lucrative tender with the Msunduzi Municipality was unacceptable.
"The DA believes it is an embarrassment to a provincial government that has absolutely no follow-through and no political will to resolve the ongoing scandal surrounding the agriculture department, the issue of the officials responsible and the financial losses incurred.
"Mjwara represents the worst of politically connected appointments - incompetent, unaccountable and always able to bounce back somewhere else due to their connectedness," said Burrows. He said the DA would continue to call for the release of the contents of a forensic report into the agriculture department.
"In the interim, Mjwara should not be allowed to contract with either the provincial or local government," he said.
IFP leader Lionel Mtshali said his party was outraged at news that Mjwara had emerged as the preferred bidder for the tender.
He criticised the ANC, whose nominee and protege Mjwara was and pointed to Mjwara's "disastrous tenure at the agriculture department".
"The IFP had long criticised the general state of lawlessness, maladministration, fraud and corruption in the department prior to Mjwara's forced departure last year. The former head of department's mismanagement has cost the taxpayer approximately R125 million," he said.
Mtshali charged that Mjwara had been sheltered for three years by the provincial government and it had taken the IFP an equal number of years of concentrated effort in the legislature to trigger an investigation into his misconduct.
"The IFP is alarmed at the expanding network of corrupt relationships across the different tiers of government in the province," he said.
"The award of this particular tender to Dr Mjwara sums up all that is wrong with the tendering processes in general: the beneficiary is a close political ally, under a cloud, and hardly competent for the task in question," said Mtshali.
He said his party would pursue the issue of the tender in the provincial legislature and in the Msunduzi council.
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