By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has denied bungling a R100 million funds from the criminal assets recovery account (Cara), which were meant for empowerment programmes for the survivors of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.
This happened after Zulu and her acting director-general Linton Mchunu approved the transfer of the money from the criminal assets recovery account (Cara) to the organisations.
In an interview on eNCA, the minister, said the National Development Agency (NDA) should be held accountable.
“The NDA is the one that is accountable for all this money,” she said.
She also claimed the system was in place before she was responsible for overseeing it.
“I came into a system which had already been logged in, agreed upon and the NDA is the one that is accountable to all these monies.”
Zulu said her department does not have the capacity to distribute the funds. She added that all the Cara funds went to the NDA.
“The NDA is the one that has the capacity, because it already works with these organisations and disperses this money.”
An internal audit raised red flags concerning the appointment of the NDA and the funding given to some organisations that were not even running programmes focused on GBV.
The unfolding scenario has sparked serious concerns about the administration of resources earmarked for essential social support services.
Opposition parties raised concerns that this grave act of corruption and embezzlement seriously undermines the work that has been done and even further off-track efforts to eliminating all forms of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF).
They called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to show decisive leadership and fire Zulu and all those who were unduly enriched by this scheme must be brought to book.
In a recent turn of events, Pemmy Majodina, the chief whip of the African National Congress (ANC), has demanded answers from Zulu and and her deputy, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu.
A stringent deadline has been set by Majodina for the minister and her deputy to provide an account for the failure of the GBVCC.
This deadline is set for the following Friday,29th of December, placing a significant pressure on Zulu and Bogopane-Zulu to provide satisfactory explanations.