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Land commissioner still at work
07/01/2008 10:22 - (SA)
Walter Ka Nkosi and Justin Arenstein
Nelspruit - The Land Claims Commission has not suspended its Limpopo regional commissioner following his arrest in December on multiple fraud and perjury charges amounting to R2.5m.
Commission spokesperson Phulani Molefe said that while national authorities were aware that Mashile Mokono had been arrested, neither the commission nor the Department of Land Affairs had been formally notified about the case by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
"There have been no formal communications from the NPA. We haven't seen the charges, and do not know the details. We are therefore not in a position to suspend anyone," Molefe explained.
Mokono was arrested on December 13 following a four-year undercover investigation by a Scorpions task team, which believes he masterminded the creation of bogus land claimants in the tiny village of Dwarsloop in Bushbuckridge.
Inflate compensation
The "ghosts" were allegedly used to inflate a R2.5m cash compensation settlement meant for thousands of real villagers who were removed from their ancestral land by apartheid authorities in 1981.
Scorpions investigators claim that the bogus claimants were used to fraudulently channel money away from the real villagers.
The cash allegedly instead went to Mokono and a suspected network of accomplices.
Three other unnamed Land Claims Commission officials were also arrested in December on related charges, and are expected to appear alongside Mokono in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.
Mokono appeared briefly in court in Polokwane immediately after his arrest, but was not asked to plead and was released on R7 000 bail pending the case's transfer to Nelspruit.
His bail conditions prohibit Mokono from making any form of contact with witnesses, either directly or indirectly. He was shown a list of the witnesses.
Mokono's office in Polokwane confirmed that he was still at work, but refused to answer questions on the case.
Molefe and ministerial land affairs spokesperson Godfrey Mdhluli were unable to provide further details and were unable to say whether any other land claims adjudicated by Mokono would be reviewed to ensure that they, too, were not irregular.
No comment
"We have not been briefed on the case, so really cannot say anything more on the matter at this stage," said Mdhluli.
South Africa's chief land claims commissioner, Thozi Gwanya, was not immediately available for comment but has previously confirmed that he was aware of the NPA's corruption probe into "junior officials" involved in the Dwarsloop settlement.
The Dwarsloop community lived as a tightly knit clan under Chief Mafemane Nxumalo up until apartheid planners ordered their forced removal in 1981. Families were dumped on small unserviced stands in villages in Songeni, Saselani, Bhisonto, Hluvukani, Tekamahala and Agincourt.
Mokono is the second regional land claims commissioner to be implicated in corruption. Mpumalanga commissioner Nceba Nqana was removed from office in 2004 after press reports and a subsequent forensic audit found that he had colluded with property speculators to fraudulently inflate the value of land earmarked for purchase by the state.
Another former senior Limpopo land reform specialist, Phil Mohlahlane, was also sacked as chief executive of the troubled Land Bank in December on mismanagement and possible corruption charges.
Mohlahlane served as head of Limpopo's agriculture department before joining the Land Bank, and still maintains property and companies in the province.
- African Eye
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