According to National Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, a whopping R4 billion was injected into the controversial project in Rustenburg in the North West, which commenced at least 11 years ago with little progress.

He has since announced whilst in Rustenburg that a forensic investigation will be implemented to investigate the project - similarly to Mangaung's Hauweng project.

According to Mbalula R3 billion of the budgeted R4 billion has already been used, but there's very little progress in the project. 

In April this year, members of the Transport parliamentary committee conducted an oversight visit to assess and inspect its progress. Leader of the Portfolio Committee on Transport’s delegation, Lawrence McDonald, has since urged the Department of Transport to rescue the IPTN project.

“The project implementation started way back in 2012, and should by now have been long handed over for full implementation and use by communities. It concerns the committee more that there are no timeframes for full implementation. The committee needs to consider a follow-up visit soon, as a lot could still go wrong," McDonald adds.

Minister Mbalula has once again announced that working with the National Treasury, a forensic investigation will get underway at Rustenburg to determine what happened to the billions invested in this project and who is to be held accountable.

"We have adopted a zero-tolerance stance to corruption, and we will not hesitate to act against those found to have misappropriated public funds. Our visit to the Municipality is intended to get an account of why there has been this slow implementation of this project," Mbalula further adds.

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