AfriForum lays charges after Free State departments misuse R1,57 billion

AfriForum today laid criminal charges against Nthimotse Mokhes, Head of the Free State’s Department of Human Settlements, and Ramathe Stanley Malope, Head of the Free State’s Department of Education as part of its “Genoeg is Genoeg” (enough is enough) campaign that was launched on Monday, 18 April. This comes after the organisation studied the Departments’ annual reports and found that Mokhes and Malope might be possibly be guilty of offences in terms of the Article 86(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999.

The Annual Report of the Province’s Department of Human Settlements indicates that Department incurred irregular expenses of R982 million in the 2014/2015 financial year. In the same year, the Department of Education spent R589 million on unauthorised expenses.

“Irregular expenses constitute all expenses incurred inconsistent with what the Act prescribes. Unauthorised expenses constitute all expenses incurred contrary to the approved budget. These excessive expenses could have been prevented if the heads of department fulfilled their duties,” said Monique Taute, AfriForum’s National Campaign Coordinator.

The charges against the heads of department are based on alleged financial misappropriation in terms of the above-mentioned Act. They are the officers responsible for preventing irregular, fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenses and for holding guilty parties accountable. “The heads of department let taxpayers down by failing to fulfil their duties,” Taute said.

“It is time that taxpayers put pressure on the National Prosecuting Authority to make examples of heads of department who do not fulfil their duties as prescribed by the Act. They are some of the biggest perpetrators in the misappropriation of taxpayers’ money. It is a national crisis that must be resolved urgently.”

AfriForum will visit eight provinces in the next two weeks, during which criminal charges will be laid against 13 provincial heads of department.

AfriForum wants to encourage the public to put the necessary pressure on the National Prosecuting Authority by sending an SMS with their name to 45352 (R1) or by signing the charges on AfriForum’s web site at www.afriforum.co.za.