Department of Social Development Service Providers Suffer at the Greedy and Corrupt Hands of Panyaza’s Administration

ActionSA continues to receive reports of shocking corruption under Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s administration, which has misappropriated millions of rands that should have gone to services providers, SMMEs, and sewing cooperatives that provided uniforms to schools in accordance with their agreement with the Department of Social Development. 

Disgruntled service providers have been attempting in vain to communicate with the Premier and relevant MEC Mbali Hlophe for months. They have written to them and camped outside the Department of Social Development for weeks, among other things, but the government has, predictably, avoided taking responsibility.

With no money received, some of the cooperatives have resorted to loan sharks, while others have borrowed as much as R50 000 to complete the job. However, no money has been received, and in turn families are having their furniture and personal goods repossessed.

We learned from our interactions with the affected group that the government embarked on irregular procurement processes. Instead of hiring a main contractor to lead the project, the government chose to engage directly with the cooperatives, which is the wrong approach.

Consequently, there was no contract between the Department of Social Development and the cooperatives to guarantee that the government would fulfil its obligations and compensate them for their labour. Individuals were expected to work overtime, including Sundays, to fulfil the deadline for the timely delivery of uniforms to schools.

We are therefore calling on the outgoing ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa, to intervene in the corruption taking place within Lesufi’s corrupt government.

ActionSA calls on the people of Gauteng to utilise their vote on May 29 to exact revenge and to choose a government that will act and fix our beloved nation. We are prepared to take over and implement a government that would promptly pay our service providers and generate the much-needed sustainable jobs.

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