The North West Department of Transport Management said it will comply with law enforcement agencies that are investigating the controversial donkey carts donation to the residents of Dibono, and Manawana outside Mahikeng. This was revealed by the Department MEC, Sello Lehari during a media briefing in Mahikeng on Friday, as the controversy regarding the carts rages.
Lehari said the department will also launch its own investigation regarding the matter.
“To seek clarity I have asked for a report, and I’m still going through it. If there are further questions, those will push me for a formal investigation to be conducted. “I don’t want to assume that there is something wrong. But I must satisfy myself. We have a legal team in the department led by the director. He is the one conducting the internal investigations.
“I will also ask the office of the Premier to conduct its investigations if the need arises. So I will report back to you in two weeks’ time the outcome of my own investigations,” Lehari said.
The head of the department, Molefi Morule confirmed that the Hawks have already contacted the department.
“We have already been visited by the Hawks, after the media briefing because somebody has registered an inquiry with them. We had an engagement with them. And we have undertaken to provide them with documents that they have requested by Monday,” said Morule.
Despite this, the department insists that all due processes were followed in the donation of the R780 000 worth of donkey carts. Meanwhile, the owner of LKT Business Enterprice (corr), James Namusi, who was contracted by the department of transport management in the North West to build the 20 donkey carts, refused to provide his local company address to the media.
The department previously stated that the company was from Lonely Park in Mahikeng. But Namusi said he could not provide the address because he only rented out a place in Lonely Park for the purpose of manufacturing the donkey carts.
“My company operates in three provinces, primarily in the North West, Northern Cape, and the Free State. I have addresses in Mahikeng and in Taung. I used a third party’s workshop to manufacture these donkey carts. So I rented a place for this particular work so I’m finished now so I gave back the place because I’m done. I don’t have the address,” Namusi said.
He highlighted that the difference between his company and the other company previously interviewed in the media is the spelling of enterprise.
“The difference between the company interviewed in the media and my company is that the spelling of the word enterprise, their enterprise is spelled with a ‘se’ at the end, while my company is spelled with a ‘ce’.
“However, the logo of my company’s enterprise is spelled with the se because in January I asked one of my peers in the industry to modernize my company’s profile and the logo.
“So he did all that documentation for me so when they came back I realised that he replaced the ‘c’ with an ‘s’,” he said.
