Mbalula, who was in Bloemfontein on Monday, recently said there must be accountability over the alleged missing monies. Earlier he announced that a forensic investigation would be instituted to scrutinise the missing monies.

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He said the monies that are alleged to have gone down the drain in one form or the other, must be fully accounted for.

Mbalula says this is how the people of Mangaung should be getting closure about the long-delayed and controversial project.

The release or the finalisation of the forensic report has been postponed several times since its commencement earlier this year.

OFM News previously reported that the request for the forensic report follows stringent allegations of massive fraud and corruption in the project, with further allegations that ten buses were procured through a lease contract and facilitation process that involved a middleman who scored a facilitation fee of about R20 million.

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It’s alleged that the metro has missed at least six deadlines in phase 1 of the IPTN project, after numerous warnings by the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport.

The cost of the project has allegedly been at least R2 billion since its commencement in 2016, with feasibility studies that are said to have started in 2011, including accruals that ran into millions of rand at the ailing metro.

Earlier Mbalula said he had hoped that the investigation would be completed by the end of September 2022 but that date was later pushed back to the end of October 2022, which has now been moved to January 2023. According to Mbalula, investigators will look into the infrastructure as well as the alleged price inflation of buses purchased for the Hauweng project.

OFM News