By: Staff Reporter
Former Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has come out guns blazing to quell rumours she had a hand in the R3 billion corruption-riddled Giyani Water Project.
She said when she was appointed to the water and sanitation portfolio, an investigation was already underway. She augmented that investigation which led to the arrest and subsequent resignation of the former Lepelle North Water (LNW) CEO.
“The CEO’s arrest and that of others implicated in the Giyani bulk water project corruption came because of investigations commissioned by Minister Sisulu, who has been consistent in her anti-corruption stance,” spokesperson Steve Motale said in a statement.
He added that attempts to link Sisulu to the Giyani bulk water project were malicious and meant to tarnish her good name.
“The Minister’s anti-corruption record in all portfolios she has occupied in Cabinet speaks for itself,” Motale said.
The Giyani Bulk Water Project was meant to provide clean running water into the taps of 55 villages in Giyani in the Mopani District of Limpopo. The project was to see a 320km pipeline building that would access water from the Nandoni Dam to connect with the villages. It, however, collapsed in 2018 following numerous allegations of corruption.
Former President Jacob Zuma commissioned the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate the project since 2014.
Motale said in June 2019, Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), Limpopo’s water utility, terminated its contract with LTE Consulting Engineers, which LNW contracted to work on the water project. LTE sub-contracted Khatho Civils, which was meant to oversee the project, but had to stop its operations in 2019 after a boy fell into a trench that the contractor allegedly left open at Homu village near Giyani.
“Following Sisulu’s investigation into LNW, its former CEO was barred from selling any of his four immovable properties pending finalisation of civil recovery proceedings against him. A forensic report into the LNW board shows how money was allegedly incorrectly invested and assets mismanaged, with irregular expenditure reaching almost R40m, all under the watch of its former CEO. During Legodi’s tenure, the Burgersfort wastewater treatment works and the Phalaborwa disinfection plant stopped operating,” Motale said.
