Lonmin Community Builds Leader a Palace With Funds, Probe Finds
- Biggest expenditure item was building $5.8 million palace
- South Africa Public Protector vows to trace missing money
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South Africa’s Bapo Ba Mogale community has exhausted almost all the proceeds it received from platinum miner Lonmin Plc over the past 20 years, including spending $5.8 million on a leader’s palace, a corruption probe has found.
The fund currently has little more than it had in 1994, when South Africa’s first democratic elections were held, despite 617 million rand ($44 million) of royalties from Lonmin, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela told community members Friday, according to a statement from her office.