Panyaza Lesufi is back on the social media platform after he deactivated his X account yesterday, following a letter from ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula, summoning him to Luthuli House over his remarks on NGU. He took a swipe at AfriForum after the organisation released a media statement accusing him of corruption saying that the pressure for justice became too much for him that he deactivated his account.  

ACCUSED OF PROTECTING CORRUPT OFFICIALS

According to a statement by AfriForum released this morning, Lesufi is allegedly involved in the disappearance of hundreds of millions of Rand that were allocated to the Department of Social Development to needy NGOs.

Spokesperson Barry Bateman, said in the statement that the organisation's private prosecution unit now represents a whistleblower who exposed the corruption they alleged Lesufi is covering. "The unit has seen several forensic reports on the allocation of funds to non-profit organisations for the implementation of foodbank, school uniform and dignity pack programmes. The reports identify officials as allegedly committing crimes such as fraud, corruption, and money laundering and recommend that both disciplinary and criminal action be taken against them. As has been widely reported, between September 2023 and January this year, the DSD suspended 13 implicated officials. However, their suspensions have been lifted, and they are back at work," Bateman said adding that instead of acting on the reports, Lesufi exonerated all officials who were implicated and terminated the mandate of the law firm that was appointed to conduct the disciplinary hearings of the officials.

CONCEALING CRIME 

In a letter to Lesufi's office, Adv. Gerrie Nel, head of the unit, said this conduct appears to be an attempt to conceal the alleged crimes and protect the implicated officials. "The conduct of your office and the MEC for Social Development, in the absence of a reasonable explanation, may be construed as defeating the ends of justice and/or at least fruitless and wasteful expenditure," he said. Bateman added that it was inexplicable why a premier, supposedly committed to clean governance, would allegedly stop attempts to root out corruption in his government. "The whistleblower alleges that Premier Lesufi's stands as the stumbling block to internal disciplinary and criminal cases proceeding against the implicated officials. It is alleged that the reason for this is fear that any full investigation will eventually lead to the final beneficiaries," he added.

LESUFI HITS BACK 

Soon after reactivating his X account, Lesufi responded to the organisation and said that the media statement is different from the letter they wrote to him. Responding to the statement on X, Lesufi said, " Try harder. Your letter to me is the opposite of the media release you sent to your media friends."