The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape welcomes the arrest of three current and former senior officials at the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture by the HAWKS this morning.
The officials are charged with contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), fraud and money laundering.
The matter relates to the irregular payment of R1.6 million made to the Traffic Events Company in 2016 for the Umsombomvu Youth Festival in Colesberg, that never took place. With specific reference to this matter, the DA last year called for the Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, to report corruption within this department to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and we are glad that these arrests have finally been made.
It is time that shady senior officials are brought to book for wasteful and fruitless payments within departments.
The DA will continue to closely monitor the court appearances of this case and we trust that the law will take its course and that public funds will be recouped.