State sponsorship of Jimmy Manyi and the Progressive Professionals Forum was simply wrong

2 March 2017

Today, after bashing his critics on social media as “retards”, President of the Progressive Professionals Forum, Jimmy Manyi, finally called a press conference to fight back in the scandal surrounding the R840 000 received in “sponsorships” from Eskom and Transnet.

The fact is that sponsoring Jimmy Manyi and the Progressive Professionals Forum was simply wrong.

That is because the sponsorships:

- could not possibly have advanced Eskom’s mission (“Powering the world”) or Transnet’s mission (“Delivering freight reliably”);

- involved the use of public funds from state-owned enterprises, who are so cash strapped that they, in the case of Eskom, are squeezing consumers with electricity tariff hikes; and

- supported an organization which is deeply involved in politics and which campaigns against the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, and National Treasury, who, ironically, not only guarantees Eskom’s R350 billion debt, but also masterminded Eskom’s R83 billion bailout.

We are not going to sit back and allow state departments, state-owned enterprises and public entities to be used as “washing machines” to recycle public funds to organizations pursuing political agendas on behalf of factions in the ruling party, or on behalf of families supporting factions in the ruling party, as it heads towards the ANC 54^th Elective Conference.

We believe that the R840 000 in sponsorship received from Eskom and Transet is the tip of a big iceberg. And That is why we will be ramping up our investigation and will be:

- probing whether public funds have been transferred by state departments, state-owned enterprises and public entities to the Progressive Professionals Forum, Decolonization Foundation and the Black Business Council;

- submitting requests, in term of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (No. 2 of 2000), for copies the sponsorship policies employed by Eskom and Transnet; and

- requesting the Audit-General, Kimi Makwetu, to investigate the sponsorships received from Eskom and Transnet.

We have to be sure that the sponsorships, received by Jimmy Manyi and the Progressive Professionals Forum, were in fact consistent with the sponsorships polices employed by Eskom and Transnet.

The fact is that in the end Jimmy Manyi and his Progressive Professionals Forum should not have received one cent from Eskom or Transnet.

Issued by David Maynier, Shadow Minister on Finance, 2 March 2017