Officials caught in major land reform scam have been fired: department
A report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has caused controversy after it recommended that 42 people – including government officials – be prosecuted for fraud and corruption linked to land reform programmes.
While the report only came to light this week following a Promotion to Access to Information Application (PAIA) request by BusinessDay, it was originally handed over to President Ramaphosa in March 2018.
In this time period government said it has already held several disciplinary hearings and most officials in the scam have been axed.
Speaking to 702, acting director general in the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Rendani Sadiki, said that her department was very hard on fraud and corruption when it is discovered.
While Sadiki could not provide details on the exact number of officials who faced disciplinary charges, she said that most of those implicated were in various stages of the disciplinary process or had already been fired – and one jailed.
She added that action had been taken to recover the land and to deal with those farmers who were erroneously provided land – but could not provide hard statistics on what action had been taken.
“One person has been convicted and is facing jail time on this specific issue, and a number of people have been fired,” she said.
However, this contradicts statements made by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Speaking to BusinessDay, a NPA spokesperson said that most of those implicated by the report have not faced prosecution and that investigations are still ongoing.
The fraudulent activities saw officials abuse land reform projects aimed at delivering land to citizens. In one such project, grants were made available to beneficiaries to cover the costs of the acquisition of agricultural land.
These beneficiaries were then expected to stay and work on the farms they were given as a way of paying back some of the money they had received.
However, the SIU found that in many of these cases thousands of alleged beneficiaries were not even aware of the project and had never been to their farms. Others had never lived or worked on a farm and did not qualify for grants.
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