By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Deputy President David Mabuza has rejected allegations brought against him in a complaint under the nation’s organized crime laws.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) submitted evidence to the NPA’s Investigating Directorate. The evidence implicates 13 people, including Mabuza, as well as two businesses in an alleged R35 billion land restitution scam and the killing of wildlife to generate income in Mpumalanga.
Outa asked for Mabuza and his co-accused to be charged under the umbrella offence of contravening section 2(1) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).
This is not the first so-called land claim scam that has surfaced after conservationist and whistle-blower Fred Daniel exposed the scandal back in 2002.
The evidence in Outa’s affidavit comes from court records in Daniel’s 12-year legal battle against the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and others in the Pretoria High Court, over the loss of his 39 000 hectare nature reserve.
The case was filed in 2010 and finally went to trial in August 2021.
While Mabuza is not part of the litigation, Outa insists that the deputy president was allegedly connected to the organised crime.
But the Presidency has denied this and pointed out that Daniel’s previous applications filed against Mabuza had been rejected.
“The judicial system has found him to be a dishonest litigant who takes advantage of the system,” Mabuza’s spokesperson, Matshepo Seedat, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Seedat argued that Outa’s complaint to the NPA was based on “false criminal charges” and criticised the organisation for attempting to discredit the deputy president “in order to further their own nefarious goals”.
“The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation [Hawks] and the Specialised Commercial Court prosecutors declined to prosecute anyone because of the false charges. Similarly, the allegations in this complaint are completely false and without merit,” she said.
In the current civil litigation brought by Daniel, the deputy president is not even a respondent in his personal capacity. Records of the civil case are available for anyone to see how Daniel has been exposed for who he is.”
Seedat further pointed out that Mabuza has repeatedly called on the relevant authorities to investigate him if hard evidence indeed implicated him in wrongdoing.