Hon Speaker, last year we raised our concern with regard to the Free State government, and, in particular, we raised our concern around the corrupt practices that are taking place within the provincial government. We raised the activities of the former member of the executive council of the province, the MEC for sport, who is now the premier, about the so-called sports facilities in terms of which a company was created as a conduit to siphon off money from the state into that particular company by friends.
Last week, we raised a concern about provincial government diverting the money from the core function to an unknown destination.
It has now come to our attention that those who fight corruption in the government in the Free State actually are being purged by the Premier of the Free State, Ace Magashule. The refusal to pay R140 million by the MEC there has, in fact, made the MEC a target. A recent development is that the premier wants R2 billion to be set aside for his own slush fund. This is a matter of serious concern.
We have said in this House that we will support any campaign to fight corruption. But if this is how the governing party is fighting corruption, we are very worried. We are worried that no action is taken where corruption is sighted and everybody can see that corrupt practices are taking place. We demand action, but of course we are not optimistic that action will be taken.