Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has asked the Auditor-General Shauket Fakie to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sale of a state-owned house to President Thabo Mbeki's wife, Zanele.

DA public accounts spokesman Mark Lowe said in a statement this should include the apparent failure by the department of public works to follow tender procedures.

"It is increasingly clear that the transaction has severely embarrassed the government, was highly irregular and improper and that the department failed to follow its own tender procedures for the disposal of state assets."

Stella Sigcau

He said Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau had, once again, failed to adequately explain the transaction when she replied to a question on the issue in Parliament last week.

According to the minister the house in Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth, was legally acquired by Zanele Mbeki, and was sold to her at open market value.

In September, the Sunday Times newspaper reported that the president's wife bought the public works house for R440 000, and put it on the market a few months later for R875 000.

It was also reported that no tender process was followed in the sale of the house.

Sigcau said in the National Assembly on November 6 the house was sold to Mrs Mbeki in November last year in order to secure the continued occupation in the home of the widow of the late Govan Mbeki, Epainette.

Govan Mbeki had been leasing the home from the state.

The house was not sold by Zanele Mbeki, she said, and the president's wife had indicated the property would be sold back to the state, at the original purchase price.

It would then be offered for sale on the open market via a public tender, Sigcau said.

Lowe said on Sunday the DA would table further parliamentary questions to the minister until "a satisfactory explanation is forthcoming".

Special rules

"Once again, it appears that there is one set of special rules for the ANC elite and quite another for the rest of South Africa.

"I have therefore written to the Auditor-General, referring him to our questions in Parliament and the unsatisfactory replies from the minister, and asked his office to carry out his own independent investigation as a matter of urgency," he said.

With acknowledgements to News24.