The Free State asbestos scam is a classic. First pick an issue that makes it look like you care. Nothing better than asbestos, an indifferent killer banned for sale post 94. Then we pretend it’s killing the poor. Then we can argue that no cost is to high to save our people.

Except it’s not like that. Yes asbestos kills and thousands of poor people are exposed to dangerous asbestos mining waste in the NCape and Limpopo. But it poses a trivial risk in the form of asbestos cement corrugated roofing.

Asbestos cement roof products are strong, stable, excellent insulation and safe, provided that you don’t mess with them. They can last 100 years. This is why the product is everywhere, especially in coastal areas where corrugated metal sheeting rusts quickly.

There is no one in the world who would recommend replacing asbestos cement roof sheets unless there is a very good reason to do so. Asbestos roofing poses trivial risk but once you start breaking it and ripping it down transporting and disposing of it it’s another story.

Asbestos poses an enormous risk to contractors appointed to break it down and remove it. A risk way bigger than the risk associated with living in a asbestos cement roofed house. To remove asbestos cement roofs safely and dispose of them is very costly, difficult and dangerous.

The tender was to identify asbestos roofs in the townships. They did this using satellite images. The roofs are easy to recognize on Google Earth. It cost them nothing. Then they say they sent people to inspect the homes. The only point would be to assess the state of the roofs.

But they didn’t do that. If they had, they would know if any roofs were dangerous. They could also educate owners by telling them that their roofs are safe, just do not fiddle with them. Don’t sand them, scrape them or clean them, just leave them alone.

What they claimed to do was report on the state of the houses themselves, whether the walls were cracked and if the houses needed to be replaced or repaired. That was stage two of the multi billion tender.

Despite spending R260 million, all Sodi did was count the asbestos roofed houses using Google Earth. He did not fix or replace a single roof. That was also never his plan. Believe it or not he had previously taken the Gauteng government on the same scam

The sad part is that R260 million could have gone a long way to protect thousands of residents in the Kuruman area who do face exposure to dangerous blue asbestos fibre at home, at school and in many other public places.

There are still dozens of asbestos mine dumps that have not been rehabilitated because the DMRE hasn’t the budget to do this important work. But somehow the ANC found the money to run a scam that benefitted only the connected cronies and did nothing for the poor.