Roux Shabangu willing to co-operate

2011-11-03 16:23

Johannesburg - Businessman Roux Shabangu said he would co-operate with the public protector should she probe another lease agreement involving the public works department and himself.

"We would be more than willing to co-operate with the public protector should she decide to investigate the matter," his spokesperson Lelo Zulu said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance said it would ask Public Protector Thuli Madonsela to investigate what it called another "potential lease scandal" involving the Independent Complaints Directorate's (ICD) new headquarters in Pretoria.

Shabangu was named as the owner of the building secured by the department.

As with the police lease deals scandal in which Shabangu was implicated, the rent for the ICD's premises "is reportedly grossly inflated", said DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler Barnard.

As a result, the ICD's total rental spending for the past financial year had increased by 400% from R4.2m to R15.6m.

The ICD would provide the parliamentary portfolio committee on police with more detailed information on the operating lease on Friday, spokesperson Moses Dlamini said in a statement.

It welcomed any investigation by Madonsela and said it would co-operate.

Dlamini said the ICD had never entered into any agreements with landlords and merely occupied buildings that were procured for it by the public works department.

Former public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde was sacked from the Cabinet last week.

This came after Madonsela found that she had acted unlawfully in approving multimillion-rand lease agreements with Shabangu for police headquarters in Pretoria and Durban.

National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele was suspended at the same time.

Madonsela found his involvement in the procurement of the two leases unlawful and amounting to maladministration. The leases were worth R1.6bn.

- SAPA