His accusers want his influence in a lucrative community project probed.
ANC PEC member Mandla Msibi has been reported to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane over his involvement with the multi-billion rand Nkosi City project that is to be constructed in his area of KaDaantjie.
The farmers currently using the land where the massive development is to take place complain that Msibi didn’t do fair consultations when he and his partners in the project went ahead and got government to approve it.
The project was announced by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane in her State of the Province Address 25 February 2020.
She said it would comprise of hundreds and hundreds of dwelling units – bonded homes, 14 schools, a TVET College, various training centres and a provincial hospital.
Msibi is one of the three men behind the R8 billion ‘agri-city’ project together with property developer Philip Kleijnhans and traditional leader Sicelo Nkosi.
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The land lies near the KaDaantjie tribal village, about 35km from Mbombela and 3km from the Kruger National Park.
The Mail & Guardian reports that the Tilimeleni Farmers’ Association filed a complaint in July 2020 against the men behind the development.
The association said they are not opposed to the development per se but wanted to know how their interest as long time farmers in the area would be protected and said they were not getting answers from Kleijnhans, Nkosi and Msibi.
The association tells Mkhwebane that a meeting was held in 2016 between then rural development minister Gugile Nkwinti, Msibi, Kleijnhans and Nkosi and “what then followed was numerous threats which are alleged to have come from politicians”, their complaint to Mkhwebane reads.
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The three men first established the Communal Property Association, in which Msibi served as chair while he was a ward councillor in 2009.
They then formed the Dovetail Foundation, under a company called ‘Dovetail Property Group’, which is the company behind Nkosi City Development – which Msibi is a director of.
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In the May 2016 meeting the farmers asked what would happen to their farms when the development for the ‘agri-city’ is put on land falling under a chieftaincy as well as the issues of graves.
The developers plan to relocate the graves to somewhere else…
They tell Mkhwebane in their complaint statement that even Nkwinti’s office wrote a report critical of the project after visiting the land.
Mkhwebane is asked by the association to investigate the rumours that the Nkosi City Association lied in a report to Nkwinti’s department about an agreement being reached with the farmers’ association.
(edited by ZK)
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