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Land commissioner out of job
14/07/2008 14:07 - (SA)
Sydney Masinga
Polokwane - Limpopo's flamboyant regional land claims commissioner Mashile Mokono is out of a job.
Mokono's contract was not renewed when it expired at the end of June, following a high-level national review of fraud and corruption charges against him.
Mokono, who is an advocate, was suspended in March four months after he was arrested and charged for allegedly masterminding a R2.5m land scam.
A Scorpions task-team claimed at the time that Mokono assisted in the creation of bogus land claimants at a small village near Dwarsloop in Bushbuckridge.
The "ghosts claimants" 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.
Investigators believe that the bogus claimants were used to fraudulently channel money away from the real villagers.
No formal report
Although no formal report has been released yet, spokespeople said at the time that money appeared to have gone to Mokono and a group of four associates, Mokotedi Lucas, 34, from the Eastern Cape, Motjatji Modisho, 33, Nengo Letakgomo, 31, and Madumetja Mgoasheng, 38.
All five men have been charged with fraud and corruption.
National land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela confirmed that Mokono's contract was not renewed, along with Mpumalanga's regional commissioner Peter Mhangwani who has been accused of sexual harassment of female staff.
Neither Mphela nor the Limpopo land commission office was prepared to comment on the matter, or whether an internal investigation into the alleged R2.5m fraud would proceed.
No comment
Mokono himself refused to comment.
"You are talking to the wrong person sir. Go to the people who were my employers, and ask them why I am no longer the commissioner," said Mokono.
Detailed written questions submitted to both the national and Limpopo commission offices on other aspects of the alleged fraud scam, as well as the possible impact on land reform in the province, have been unanswered.
Miyelani Nkatingi has meanwhile been appointed as acting regional land claims commissioner for Limpopo.
An earlier version of this story included a quotation from Limpopo commission spokesperson, Motlatsi Lebea. Lebea disputes the validity of the quotation and subsequently it has been removed.
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