Premier MaQueen Letshoa-Mathae spokesperson Matshediso Setai is at the centre of serious accusations involving fraud and forgery. This is after media reports surfaced claiming she allegedly crafted a fraudulent letter, purportedly signed by acting provincial director-general Dr Mafole Mokalobe, to secure departmental funding for the event.

The reports, which emerged late last week, suggest internal funding requests were initially denied, prompting an alleged scheme to use a falsified letter in Mokalobe’s name to secure financial support.

But Setai insists the allegations are baseless and politically motivated. She said the Content Creators Colloquium formed part of a broader youth programme initially scheduled for June, but later postponed.

‘Ensure the programme went ahead’

“How we work with government special programmes is that they’ll run Youth Month, they’ll run Women’s Month, and we’ll run initiatives like Heritage Day. 

“We ran it concurrently with the department of arts and culture because they didn’t have sufficient funding this year to host Heritage Day. So we devised a collaborative effort to ensure the programme went ahead, with each department asked to contribute something towards its success.”

Mokalobe had allegedly already signed a partnership letter in June endorsing the colloquium before its postponement. That letter was used to engage both public and private stakeholders for support.

“The two government departments we approached were the department of education and Destea, using the letter signed by the director-general,” said Setai. 

“By September, Destea had contributed speakers to the colloquium, while the department was asked to assist with photography and videography at the event. The HOD was engaged and had agreed to come to the party.”

‘Colloquium had received formal endorsement’

The selection of departments was intentional, aligned with their respective mandates: Destea’s focus on youth economic development, and education’s involvement with sectoral schools under the three-stream model.

The colloquium had received formal endorsement from parliament’s portfolio committee on digital technology and communication. However, confusion emerged when department of education spokesperson Howard Ndaba confirmed the initial letter from Mokalobe had been received in June. 

Concerns were raised about a second, unsigned version – allegedly originating from Setai’s office – which surfaced later, according to a report by Central News.

“As the department, we want to clarify we received a formal letter from Dr Mokalobe on 25 June, in which he requested funding,” said Ndaba. 

“Our HOD, Adv. Tsoarelo Malakoane, subsequently held discussions with him regarding how the matter would be facilitated. As for the second letter that surfaced last week – unsigned – it was sent to our department by Ms Setai’s office.”

Setai later clarified the unsigned version was a revised draft, requested by the department, to include a designated signing section for Malakoane.

“We were informed, as the premier’s office, that the CFO of education requested the partnership letter – originally signed by the acting director-general in June – be amended to include a designated section for the HOD’s signature. This was communicated to us on Tuesday.”

‘Keeping the content unchanged’

The DG’s office was then asked to revise the original June letter, keeping the content unchanged, by adding a signature block for Malakoane, and to have the acting DG re-sign it, backdated to the original June signing date.

Due to the DG’s unavailability, the amended version of the partnership letter was sent unsigned to the department of education.

“There is no letter signed by anyone else,” said Setai. “The only signed document was the original letter from the acting director-general in June. The version sent to education was unsigned. Nobody forged anything. Nobody misrepresented anything.”

‘Allegedly targeted campaign against her’

The controversy surrounding the letter forms part of an allegedly targeted campaign against her, orchestrated by a former acting provincial spokesperson and Ndaba.

“Truth be told, when I arrived in this province, I uncovered numerous irregularities and instances of government funds being misused. When you begin correcting those wrongs and effectively ‘close the taps’ then you become an enemy of the state, and that’s when the campaign against me began.”

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi, Refilwe Bekane dg