Alexandra Renewal Project: R2.21 Billion Spent, Records "Seized", Public Protector and SAHRC Order SIU and Hawks Probes

R2.21 billion (spent 2001–2013, PP/SAHRC report)

documented loss

Announced by President Mbeki in 2001 as a R1.3 billion seven-year regeneration of Alexandra, the project consumed R2.21 billion by 2013 with little to show. When the Public Protector and SAHRC investigated after the 2019 Alexandra shutdown protests, the Gauteng Human Settlements department could not produce financial, procurement or contract records. The joint report of July 2021 directed the Premier to seek an SIU proclamation and referred the matter to the Hawks.

The Record The Evidence What Was Lost Implicated Institutions The Paper Trail

The Record

The Alexandra Renewal Project was launched in President Thabo Mbeki's 2001 State of the Nation Address as a R1.3 billion, seven-year programme to rebuild one of Johannesburg's oldest and most crowded townships. By 2013 R2.21 billion had been spent — R1.4 billion by Gauteng Human Settlements, R444 million by the City of Johannesburg, R173 million in Municipal Infrastructure Grant, R109 million by Gauteng Transport, R88 million from the Human Settlements Fund and R15 million by Gauteng Economic Development. Alexandra looked much as it had.

In April 2019 residents shut the township down in protest. Mayor Herman Mashaba said R1.6 billion had been looted. The Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission opened a joint investigation. Their report, released on 10 July 2021, recorded that the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements "did not avail records in connection with financial, procurement, business plans", saying they had been seized by City of Johannesburg forensic investigators; the Auditor-General could neither confirm nor exclude corruption. The two Chapter 9 bodies directed Premier David Makhura to ask the President for an SIU proclamation, referred the matter to the Hawks for consideration of criminal charges, ordered the City to submit its forensic reports within 30 days and directed recovery of misappropriated funds.

The status of the SIU proclamation after 2021 could not be confirmed in this research pass.