BDFM Online
Monday, November 27, 2006
THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was outraged by reports that two cabinet ministers and National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete had shares in the consortium that is building the Gautrain, a Cosatu spokesman said yesterday.
"The reports reinforced the belief expressed at Cosatu's recent congress that a worryingly growing number of African National Congress (ANC) and government leaders had a personal self-enrichment culture," spokesman Patrick Craven said.
He was responding to a report in the Sunday Times that Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and Education Minister Naledi Pandor were part of the shareholding structure of the Bombela consortium, which won the R23bn Gautrain bid.
Unless the ministers, Mbete and the "long list of ANC officials" implicated in the report refuted these allegations, greed and selfishness had clearly overtaken the culture of service for the people, Craven said in a statement.
The Sunday Times reported that the ministers confirmed they had taken part in cabinet meetings at which the Gautrain project was discussed and approved last December - against the advice of Parliament's portfolio committee on transport.
The newspaper said Mapisa-Nqakula and Mbete had shares in Dyambu Holdings, while Pandor was involved in Black Management Forum Investments (BMFI).
Mapisa-Nqakula's spokesman was quoted as saying that when the minister had sat in cabinet meetings, she was unaware that Dyambu was part of the Bombela consortium.
Pandor denied her shareholding in BMFI constituted a conflict of interest. "I am an ordinary shareholder and not involved in decision making in BMFI," the minister said. Sapa