EFF opens case against Minister Macpherson over corruption claims
The party accuses Macpherson of meddling in a tender at the Independent Development Trust (IDT), one of the department’s entities.
Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson. Picture: Facebook/DepartmentPublicWorksandinfrastructure
CAPE TOWN - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has opened a case of corruption against Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson.
The party accuses Macpherson of meddling in a tender at the Independent Development Trust (IDT), one of the department’s entities.
The IDT provides the development and implementation of social infrastructure.
This comes as Macpherson also faces separate allegations of bribing a journalist to report negatively against the IDT’s CEO, Tebogo Malaka, an allegation the Democratic Alliance (DA) has rejected.
READ: DA rejects corruption allegations against Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson
Macpherson has come under fire from different quarters accusing him of corruption in the running of the IDT.
One of those is the EFF, which has laid a criminal complaint against Macpherson in Pretoria on Tuesday for involving himself in a matter between the IDT and one of its contractors.
The EFF's Secretary General - Marshall Dlamini - said, “We’ve got enough evidence. We’ve got an email from a minister demanding payment for a specific contractor called Lonerock Construction.”
Macpherson’s spokesperson, James de Villiers, said Macpherson responded to a thread of emails that he was copied in late last year.
In the email, Macpherson bemoaned that “he was being dragged into a matter because the IDT could not do its job” and pay an outstanding Lonerock invoice of R19 million.
He also requested an urgent report on why the IDT had not stuck to their deadlines and commitments from 20 months ago.