The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has also joined other opposition political parties in calling for Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane to step down from office while in the process of clearing his name.
Mabuyane is said to be taking Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s findings against him on review.
He has been found to have personally benefitted to the tune of R450 000 from the funds meant for the memorial service of the late anti-apartheid stalwart Winnie Madikizela Mandela.
The province’s MEC of Public Works Babalo Madikizela as well as the provincial ANC have also been implicated.
The PAC’s Western Cape Regional Chairperson, Siyabulela Ndamane, says Mabuyane’s name keeps cropping up whenever there is a corruption scandal in the Eastern Cape.
“The PAC is calling upon the Premier to take the high moral ground and step aside from the office of governance as the Premier and allow investigations to continue in a competent court of law. We are saying this because the name of Oscar Mabuyane always crops up whenever there is a corruption scandal in the Eastern Cape,” says Ndamane.
The EFF in the Eastern Cape has since opened a case against Mabuyane, Madikizela as well as the Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana Gxothiwe at the Bhisho Police station.
However, Mabuyane says he is not surprised that there are calls for him to step down by opposition parties.
“There is an obsession generally about me. We know their attitude. The province is relatively stable. They are doing every trick in the book to destabilise us. They are actually opportunists that we all know, they are using this simply because it is their electioneering strategy, it is not a new thing, it is not surprising. It has been a concerted effort to discredit me, to rubbish me, to recreate me to be something that I am not. I am not going to be that thing at any time. I am consistent, I am focussed, I am doing my work, I am leading the province, I am leading government.”
In the video below, opposition parties in the Eastern Cape call for Oscar Mabuyane’s removal:
Judicial review
Meanwhile, Mabuyane has instructed his attorneys to immediately interdict the Public Protector’s findings against him, denying that he has ever benefitted from the funds.
The matter has since been escalated to the Hawks for criminal investigation.
Mkhwebane says this is with the view to prosecute those alleged to have tampered with and unduly benefitted from the public purse.
Mabuyane says he will challenge the Public Protector’s report on findings against him:
-Additional reporting by SABC News
