Zwane needs to answer for possible capture of Mining Department

4 November 2016

The DA will be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources to summon Mining Minister, Mosebenzi Zwane, to appear before the committee and answer for the potentially irregular appointment of his long-time ally, Seipati Dlamini, as Deputy Director General of Mineral Regulation.

This comes after it was revealed that Dlamini, who served as Zwane’s Chief of Staff for the last year, was the chief financial officer in the Free State Department of Agriculture during Zwane’s tenure as the province’s MEC, when irregular payments were made to a Gupta-linked company for a Free State dairy project in Zwane’s home town of Vrede.

Investigators for National Treasury have found that the R570 million project was riddled with irregularities.

In 2013 both Zwane and Dlamini were implicated in that department’s possible irregular payment of between R40 million and R144 million to the dairy project run by a Gupta-linked company, Estina.

Dlamini has now been appointed to one of the most important roles within the Department as DDG in a role which has the power to grant or rescind mining licences.

Reports suggest that  Zwane did not follow due process or consult employees in appointing Dlamini. It is therefore vital that he account to parliament how and why this appointment was made.

Minister Zwane was also implicated by former Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, in her ‘State capture’ report, over his trip to Switzerland with the Guptas on a mission to persuade Glencore to sell the Optimum colliery to their company, Tegeta Exploration and Resources.

This raises serious concern over the appointment of Dlamini. It is of utmost importance that the truth is revealed and quickly, to ascertain whether our Mineral and Resources Department has been “captured”, as the whole ANC government seems to be.

The DA will be using all possible avenues in Parliament to get to the truth of the matter. South Africans need to be assured, now more than ever, that their government has not been completely captured by a criminal syndicate. And if it is, to make sure that we do everything in our power to purge government of these criminals.

Issued by James Lorimer, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources, 4 November 2016