Minister Davies Muddy's the Waters on Aviation Village
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies, at last came to account to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry for the Centurion Aviation Village scandal where R100 million of public money was misspent by officials.
In an amazing turn of events, Minister Davies tried vociferously to defend his department's untruthful responses to Parliamentary questions into the mess; however, contrary to claims by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the DA has today established:
- There is only one company ‘occupying’ a building on the site and not 2 ‘tenant's’ as claimed by DTI;
- There is no occupation certificate for the building by the City of Tshwane;
- There is no formal lease between the ‘occupant' and the CAV; only a verbal ‘agreement’;
- The occupant to date has not paid a single cent in rent to the CAV;
- The Minister now admits that the CAV may not be ‘fully operational’ as claimed by his Spokesman;
- Despite the CAV being touted by the department as a job creation ‘success’, the many promised jobs have not materialised; and astonishingly
- More money will have to be spent on bulk infrastructure and earth works despite R65 million already having been spent.
The CAV promised to create thousands of high-skilled, niche job opportunities and was set to become a key feature of the South African aerospace industry. Sadly, this has not materialised due to inaction by the DTI.
In his efforts to avoid accountably to Parliament, Minister Davies has failed to answer the following questions:
- Where the R65 million spent on bulk earthworks and infrastructure has gone as there is nothing to show on site.
- What has he or his department done to recover such funds from the CAV or the implicated contractors and department officials;
- How many officials have been brought to book for their involvement in the financial irregularities;
- How many of the recommendations in the forensic report have been actioned; and
- What steps has the DTI taken to ascertain who signed off the R84 998 950.10 of unauthorised expenditure, and what steps have been taken to recover the money?
At the time the DA uncovered this story, we requested that the Minister table the full, unredacted report to the Committee however he also failed to do so. In light of this, the DA tabled the heavily redacted version after a successful PAIA application.
The ball is now firmly in the ANC’s court as to whether or not it takes corruption and maladministration seriously and the DA will not stop until Minister Davies and his department are held accountable for this failed project and thousands of promised jobs materialise.
Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA Shadow Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, 4 November 2015
