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For the past three years the Inkatha Freedom Party has been pursuing allegations of fraud and corruption in the KwaZulu-Natal Treasury and now feels vindicated after President Zuma authorised the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate a series of allegations at the KZN Treasury Department.

“The IFP has been very vocal in highlighting and exposing the serious allegations of fraud and corruption in the KZN Treasury. In addition to media statements, motions and debates in the Legislature, we even held a media briefing in November 2016 to expose the serious shenanigans in the Treasury.

At the media briefing we presented a detailed list of these allegations but this was not taken seriously by the provincial government. When we raised these concerns in the Legislature, MEC for Finance, Belinda Scott shrugged them off and said there was nothing illegal happening in the Treasury. We even pointed to a White cabal that is running the KZN Treasury but it would appear that MEC Scott is protecting certain individuals within Treasury,” IFP Leader in the KZN Legislature, Mr Blessed Gwala, MPL.

“It must be remembered that our call for an investigation forced the KZN Premier to intervene and he overruled the MEC of Finance who threatened to take the report of the former public protector, Thuli Madonsela on judicial review, but after that nothing has happened at provincial level to investigate the goings on at the Treasury.

We welcome President Zuma’s call for an investigation but urge the President to ensure that an investigation does indeed take place and a report is made public without delay. We say this because in 2015 President Zuma had called for an investigation about the spending of tax payers' money on projects like the International North Sea Jazz Festival, Commemoration of Prisoners of War-St Helena event and KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board.

Millions of rand were paid to the organisers but some of the projects never took place and money was not recovered. To this day, we have not seen the outcome of that investigation. If the President is serious about exposing and eradicating corruption, he must follow through and ensure that the public is made aware of the outcome of the investigations. The IFP will be following this issue very closely”, concluded Mr Gwala.

Issued by IFP