By Akani Nkuna
The DA will request an investigation into possible contradictions in the official declarations of interests of Deputy President Paul Mashatile about a diamond received from controversial diamond dealer, Louis Liebenberg.
Mashatile’s spokesperson Keith Khoza told SABC news that the deputy president’s wife, Humile, received the stone. It was not declared because its authenticity and value had to be verified.
However, while in the process of verification, information surfaced on a number of criminal allegations involving Liebenberg, and it was decided it would not be prudent to accept anything from him.
Hlumile will return the diamond to Liebenberg.
But DA chief whip George Michalakis is not buying Mashatile’s explanation.
“Mashatile’s claim that the diamond from Louis Liebenberg was given to his wife contradicts the version of the whistleblower in this matter in an unsigned affidavit of Hein Jooste filed in the State’s case against Liebenberg,” he said on
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