DA’s Steenhuisen lays criminal complaints against Paul Mashatile

The DA laid criminal complaints against deputy president Paul Mashatile, its leader John Steenhuisen said on Monday outside Cape Town’s central police station.

Steenhuisen opened a case against Mashatile for alleged corruption and wrongdoing. 

The DA leader is not the only one to make allegations against Mashatile. The ANC Veterans League wants all senior ANC leaders, including Mashatile, who are facing allegations of corruption, “misdeeds” and wrongdoing to appear before the party’s integrity commission.

Several exposés have been written about Mashatile, alleging his son-in-law benefited from state tenders and that Mashatile lived in houses allegedly bought with money made from tenders.

“This follows several allegations of corruption levelled against him, which span a number of decades. These include an intricate web of nepotism and family patronage in which Mashatile is allegedly the ultimate beneficiary,” Steenhuisen said.

“The most recent scandal being the purchase of a Constantia mansion by Mashatile’s son-in-law at a cost of R28.9m by his company, which still allegedly owes the Gauteng department of human settlements R7m for the failed Alexandra housing project.

“The DA has also submitted a formal complaint to parliament's joint committee on ethics and members' interest for a breach of the code of conduct by Mashatile for failure to disclose registrable interests or for wilfully or negligently providing the registrar with incorrect or misleading details.

“Mashatile also faces allegations of having misled parliament by failing to declare his use of various properties, including a R37m Waterfall house in Gauteng. Mashatile also breached the code of conduct by failing to act in all respects in a manner that is consistent with the integrity of the office of his government.

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“Given that the appointment of the deputy president is entirely at the discretion of the president himself, the DA last week submitted a dossier of the allegations to the presidency. We gave the president until Sona to make an announcement in regard to what he intended to do with these serious allegations.

“To date, the president has remained completely unresponsive to any of the allegations and refuses to answer questions around the suitability or otherwise his appointment of Mr Paul Mashatile.

“It comes as no surprise to us that the president has again failed to act against members of his own party who are facing serious charges,” he said.

Mashatile’s spokesperson, Vukani Mde, said the deputy president was confident he would emerge unscathed from any investigation conducted by the state or the ANC.

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