The hastiness to form the government in Gauteng is to make sure that it covers the corruption that took place in some of the provincial departments.
This is according to independent analyst, GoodEnough Mashigo, who said the provincial government was rushed because they could not risk the chance of certain departments falling into the DA’s hands, such as the Health, Social and Human Settlements departments.
“This would mean three things. One, at the Department of Housing the whole project of Alexandria’s renewal programme would come to the fore and reveal who benefited and what, how and where did the R1.4 billion go. So they can’t afford to lose that department to another political party.
“Two, they also did not want anyone else to go to the Department of Health, where they will reveal the issues of Rahima Moosa Hospital, Tembisa Hospital and other hospitals that were collapsing due to maladministration and corruption that resulted in a whistle-blower being killed.
“They also didn’t want any political party to occupy the Social Development Department to unravel why is it that the department did not fund NGOs that were supposed to be funded for the 2023/24 financial year,” he added.
The rush was to prevent anyone from being able to uncover corruption and maladministration that was taking place in departments to the point where they were willing to form a shaky government that would not stand the test of time.
“The bigger question is, is this government formed to last or to shred documents; so that they can be able to destroy documents? Thus, at a later stage when a proper PGU is formed they would not be able to find evidence of wrongdoing.
“I think this was hastily done to protect the crime of the sixth administration, that can be the only explanation. Why would they be running to form a minority government that would not be able to pass any legislation or pass any budget.”
There was no administration benefit to what they did, he said. However, the benefit of forming the administration was to conceal the crimes that were already committed by the previous administration.
The PGU was not going to last for more than six months; it was going to collapse, he said, adding that the recently announced executive were not there to govern.
Mashigo emphasised that the formation of the executive was clearly not in the interests of Gauteng residents, but rather in the interests of those who looted money in the province to either continue looting or they were going to make sure no investigation was going to happen.
The Star