A NASTY confrontation is looming between public protector Thuli Madonsela and North West premier Thandi Modise over missing mining royalties in the platinum belt.

Modise's role in the running of the royalties banking account came under heavy scrutiny at the provincial legislature's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) hearings this week.

More than R400-million has been deposited into the account as confirmed by platinum belt mining houses Lonmin, Sky Chrome and Samancor, which mine on land belonging to the local communities.

The Bapo Ba Mogale and Bakwena Ba Mogopa are up in arms, seeking accountability.

Modise appeared before Scopa in Brits on Thursday and defended herself, claiming that she played little or no role as the trustee in the day-to-day running of the Development Account, known as the D-Account.

Madonsela was approached by one of the affected communities, the Bapo Ba Mogale, who are blaming the North West government and local administrators for the mismanagement and squandering of royalties.

Modise wants the investigation of the Bapo Ba Mogale account to be dealt with as a separate entity from the other accounts which are being investigated by a government-appointed private audit firm at a cost of close to R60-million of taxpayers' money, it was revealed at the hearing.

"It's an exercise to investigate itself on the part of the government," argued Scopa member Tediye Moerane.

Modise stood her ground, insisting that her government was conducting its own investigations, which has cost over R60-million, as revealed to the Department of Finance.

Madonsela wants access to all the accounts and all relevant documents to be handed over for her investigation.

"We need to separate the D-Account from the Bapo Ba Mogale account and have separate investigations," said Modise.

"I cannot work with the public protector through the media. I only read in newspapers that she is being impeded in her work because information she needs has not been handed over.

"I cannot be told via a newspaper and then roll over and say: 'Yes, ma'am, here it is.'

"The D-Account is our responsibility and we have the power to look at it and investigate as to what transpired."

Matters came to a head when Modise warned against the consequences of making wild allegations against people believed to have been involved in siphoning funds from the account.

"We must be careful. Serious allegations are being made. We cannot do that until we get the facts.

"There are businesses and tenders involved here. We should not be seen as making possible threats to life," the premier warned.

She argued that Madonsela's responsibility was to investigate the Bapo Ba Mogale account, as requested by the community, which will only be the start of her investigations as there were more than 90 accounts falling under royalties and shareholding.

Madonsela has written to Scopa several times voicing her frustrations at the lack of support from the provincial government departments of finance and local government and traditional affairs, as well as from local authorities when requesting documents and information.

"We need to call everybody involved and have everything put on the table before jumping to conclusions," Modise said.

"The danger here is to point fingers at people on issues that we don't have facts about."

Modise pleaded with Scopa chairman Hlomane Chauke to convene another presentation meeting involving all stakeholders. Chauke provisionally agreed to the meeting.

However, Chauke stressed that the hearings needed to be completed before next year's general election.

Chauke said Madonsela might be asked to be part of the meeting.

Scopa will then make recommendations to the Hawks for action to be taken against anyone found to have transgressed the law.

Several presentations and meetings by the departments of finance and local government and traditional affairs have been held in the past, but have failed to shed light on how the funds disappeared.

Parallel investigations are being conducted by Madonsela, the government and Scopa.

One of the contentious issues raised since the hearings began early this year is that the account has not been audited for the past 19 years, according to the auditor general's office.

mtshazox@ sundayworld.co.za