The minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille claimed that the Democratic Alliance (DA) is using her as the target of a smear campaign.
“Th DA is now working together with the people who are now on the carpet for corruption. I also have evidence that they are working together.”
“The DA has lost all its cases against me in the Western Cape and they are still bitter.”
De Lille was accused of being involved in the corruption in connection to the construction of a the Beitbridge border fence which is between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
De Lille said she was assigned the duty of the construction of the border fence before the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the nationwide lockdown in March.
The DA implicated De Lille by claiming she awarded a certain company the tender to do the job, alleging that it was given unnecessary preference.
The minister however slammed those claims that presented her as corrupt.
“What went into the directive, the time frame, there’s no company in there. It is the time frame that the DG provided to me.”
She stated her concerns over the border fence project.
“At the time, they were reporting to me that the fence what cost about R37 million.”
“Later, on 20 April, I found out that it’s not R37 million, it’s R40 million and that is the red line.”
