Armed guards for Limpopo crisis team

Government officials sent in to fix the Limpopo administration's finances have been placed under constant police guard amid rising political tensions over the cabinet's intervention.

The 30 members of the national intervention team - officials from the National Treasury and the departments of health, education, transport and public works - are daily escorted by heavily armed policemen as they travel between their hotel in the provincial capital of Polokwane and the provincial government offices at which they are deployed.

The Sunday Times has established that police escorts are even provided for trips to shopping malls as officials fear for their lives.

The National Treasury's deputy director-general, Kenneth Brown, confirmed that security had been stepped up after requests from team members who were nervous in the face of hostility from the staff and senior officials in the departments they have been sent to run.

"We would have preferred for them to just be there [without security] because the province wants to cooperate, but the people themselves insisted on security measures," said Brown.

The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, played down the presence of police escorts, saying they had been deployed to guard the team only as a "precautionary measure".

"We just want to make sure that everyone is safe ... there is no security threat," he said.

But there was more evidence of heightened security when a sniffer dog was brought in to sweep the boardroom just before the start of a press conference addressed by Gordhan and cabinet colleagues on Thursday.

Gordhan was accompanied by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele and the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Roy Padayachie.

The six ministers painted a grim picture of the province's financial affairs.

But their claims provoked a heated response. On Friday the provincial ANC accused Gordhan of trying to turn "Limpopo citizens" against premier Cassel Mathale's government.

"This is equal to eroding public confidence in the government [and] in the ability of the ANC-led government and may have a devastating effect on the profile of the ANC in the communities that it leads now and in future," said provincial ANC secretary Soviet Lekganyane.

He denied that the province had been on the brink of financial collapse when the intervention team took over the five departments in December.

"There is no proof that, as at the time of the national government intervention, the provincial government had exhausted the entire R40-billion allocated to it as an appropriation," he said.

Opponents of the intervention allege that the move is an attempt by President Jacob Zuma to undermine Mathale, a close friend and ally of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema. Malema is campaigning to oust Zuma as ANC president at the party's national conference in December.

Influential Limpopo businessman and close Malema ally Sello Rasethaba on Friday derided the intervention, saying it was designed to "collectively punish" the people of the province.

"People are buying food for [hospital] patients and nurses are also buying them food. Are these people being punished all because of Malema? It looks like collective punishment," said Rasethaba.

At the press conference on Thursday, Gordhan claimed there was a plot to "sabotage" the intervention team by individuals - who he did not name - who had told suppliers they would not be paid for services rendered. This had led to some of the suppliers withdrawing their services.

But Rasethaba said Gordhan must take the blame for "the black Christmas" experienced by the province.

Mathale was more conciliatory, telling the Sunday Times his administration would cooperate with the team. "The spirit has been that of cooperation and anybody who sabotages the process would have to be dealt with," Mathale said.

He denied that suppliers were being encouraged to withhold services in order to "sabotage" the work of the intervention team.

The government's intervention in Limpopo has further exposed divisions in the ANC's top officials structure with the party's treasurer, Mathews Phosa, suggesting at a rally in Limpopo last week that the cabinet had "stolen" some of Mathale's powers. He said the provincial ANC needed to take the matter up with the party's national executive committee.

This sparked a war of words involving ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and the youth league.

Phosa has also been under fire for publicly endorsing the recently elected ANC provincial leadership despite an appeal against the elective conference's outcome by regional structures.

ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga handed a report about the conference to Mantashe last week. The Sunday Times has learnt that it is damning about the provincial leadership and recommends Luthuli House investigates the alleged irregularities. The complaints relate to suspected inflated numbers of voting delegates, identity fraud and unfair procedures.