DA vows to lay charges against MEC if Bitou report not released

06 February 2006

Brett Adkins

THE DA says it will lay criminal charges against Western Cape Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi on Monday if the results of the Bitou corruption investigation are not published by noon on that day.

This follows the laying of criminal complaints by the DA against 11 Bitou councillors and senior officials late last month in connection with the Bitou council’s finances debacle stemming early last year from a critical report by the Auditor-General for the 2003/04 financial year.

DA spokesman on corruption Robin Carlisle MPL said at the core of the corruption charges were massive misuse of municipal credit cards, falsification of claims on the Bitou council for personal enrichment, and double-claiming for personal benefit on luxurious overseas trips.

When the special investigating unit (SIU) probe began, Carlisle said the investigations of both the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and the police were suspended pending the outcome of the unit’s report.

The report, he said, was handed to Dyantyi in November last year and despite promises to publish, he had not done so.

The audit found that R122 000 in credit card expenses claimed by Bitou municipal manager George Seitisho and executive mayor Euan Wildeman on an overseas trip were unsupported by any documentation.

Wildeman told a Scopa hearing last year that Seitisho had admitted misappropriating public funds and had apologised. He said Seitisho had paid back the money involved.

However, at a subsequent Scopa hearing, the DA placed new information before the committee which it alleged were additional fraudulent claims by Seitisho. After its hearings, Scopa referred the matter to Dyantyi who initiated the SIU probe.

The findings were expected to be made known by December 19 after the deadline had been extended.

He said the DA was investigating a string of other alleged irregularities in the Bitou municipality. “The MEC (Dyantyi) has indicated to me that he accepts that corruption has occurred in Bitou.

“The DA has also been reliably informed that the SIU report corroborates certain of the findings of both the Auditor-General and the DA.”

Carlisle said neither Wildeman nor Seitisho had challenged the evidence of corruption published over many months by the DA.

Contacted yesterday for Dyantyi’s response, the MEC’s spokesman Vusi Tshoseli said he would first need to consult the MEC. Tshoseli could not be reached for comment later.

Source: The Herald

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