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The Democratic Alliance (DA) reiterates its call to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Premier, Sihle Zikalala, to fire Arts and Culture MEC, Hlengiwe Mavimbela.

This after the discovery that her Department made an annual payment of R18 million to its Internet Service Provider, Telkom, despite not receiving a full service for six months.

The finding was made by the DA within the Department’s 2020/2021 Audited Financial Statements.

According to the report, the DoAC paid Telkom the full amount despite only librarians having internet access due to the web-based library loan system and while library users had no public access to the internet for half of the year.

The debacle comes after the DoAC’s contract with a previous internet supplier expired. A new bid was advertised but it was not awarded due to the bid amount exceeding the budgeted amount. The DoAC then appointed Telkom for six months, an agreement which was then extended for a further six months.

The DoAC’s annual financial statements also show that;

- R9.159 million was disclosed as irregular expenditure due to payments made in respect of an expired contract and;
- A further R1.487 million was disclosed as fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the possible duplication of internet costs.

What this means is that public internet connectivity through Telkom for a period of six months has cost more than R18 million.

At the end of the day this is taxpayers’ money that has been wasted. Then there is the impact on those who rely solely on libraries in order to access the internet for work and study purposes.

This shocking discovery has again highlighted the incompetence within this Department. The fact that the DoAC is unable to account for R18 million paid for only six months of internet connectivity is one of the many reasons why it never receives a clean audit.

Shockingly, despite being red-flagged repeatedly by the Auditor-General for irregular expenditure, the MEC and her Department appear to be unfazed by this audit finding or the fact that they have been mismanaging funds.

This latest issue demands answers. The DA has submitted a parliamentary question (view here) to the MEC. We expect her answer within the prescribed period.

The DA in KZN remains committed to rooting out corruption within the DoAC and to ensuring fairness and transparency when it comes to expenses.

We reiterate our call to the Premier to immediately remove MEC Mavimbela. Failing this, he must be held accountable for her lack of commitment in ensuring clean audits and proper services to our communities.

Issued by DA KZN Spokesperson on Arts and Culture, Bradley Singh, MPL