Mathae splashes R750 000 on a funeral

Staff reporter

Bloemfontein – The Free State Provincisl Government (FSPG) has splashed R750 000 on a funeral of Benny Kotsoane, former Member of Executive Council.

At a time of his untimely death Kotsoane was a special advisor to Teboho “Sulky” Mokoena, MEC for COGTA and Human Settlements.

Kotsoane was buried in Botshabelo on the the 5 April 2025, after president Cyril Ramaphosa granted special provincial funeral category 1.

While everyone is concerned if any money went to the family, it was the EFF that asked.

Couch Liphoko, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader in Free State asked Mathae about the costs in the internal Question Papers (IQP).

Mathae said the total costs incurred = R750 000.

Liphoko further asked if any procurement process was bypassed due to urgency and Mathae said:

“Deviation on appointment of the Funeral Undertaker was approved based on the prior decision of the family.”

We then sent further questions to Dr Mafole Mokalobe, acting Director General and he has not responded to the questions.

Below are questions we sent:

1. Which service provider was appointed?
2. ⁠What procurement process was followed?
3. ⁠Which were companies invited on the bidding process through RFQ and how long was the advert out for RFQ and who responded?
4. Whether the service provider appointed was tax compliant?
5. If not? How come the service provider was appointed if they were not compliment which is not inline with the Treasury Regulation and PFMA.
6. Did Treasury perform the due diligence such on the procurement process and prices evaluated before the service provider was appointed or if not; why?
7. Did the Funeral Committee and Political Committee approve the deviation from the Exco Resolution and where is the resolution? If not who gave the instruction to go ahead and approved something against the previous Exco Resolution taken on funerals.
   8.⁠ Was the transaction reported to Provincial Treasury to do the assessment of the process followed as outlined during the findings of PP on Tate Makgoe, if not why?
8. Lastly, was Imvelo Lodge compliant when it hosted the community media summit?

It remains to be seen if this has been referred to Public Protector and Auditor General of South Africa.

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