By Simon Nare
The Economic Freedom Fighters has demanded the immediate suspension of Military Veterans Department acting director-general Nontobeko Mafu, who it accuses of gross corruption.
The party said on Wednesday that revelations in a Nexus Forensic Services Report showed how Mafu has allegedly used her position to milk the department dry with her involvement in serios financial misconduct over the years.
It said the report was released in January 2021, but it was classified as confidential.
According to the EFF, Mafu circumvented procurement prescripts in gross mismanagement of projects that cost millions of taxpayers’ money.
“This corruption and maladministration have run the DMV into the ground, rendering it incapable of delivering any of the 11 benefits enshrined in the Military Veterans Act No. 18 of 2011.
“The result has been severe neglect and untold suffering for South Africa’s Military Veterans, whose sacrifices for our liberation are being betrayed by a corrupt and self-serving ANC elite,” it said.
The party said the report provided irrefutable evidence of Mafu’s alleged criminal conduct, yet she had been allowed to continue in her position shielded by ANC patronage.
It added that for over four years, her “corrupt” management has persisted unabated, plunging the department into chaos and depriving military veterans of their rightful benefits, including healthcare, housing, education and pensions.
“This is a betrayal of the highest order against those who risked and gave their lives for our freedom,” said the party in the statement.
It called for Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga as well as her predecessors who concealed the Nexus report, to be held accountable for their complicity in this travesty.
The party described the cover-up of Mafu’s alleged corruption an d mismanagement as a deliberate act of sabotage against military veterans and the South African public.
“Ministers who failed to act on the Nexus report must also face the full consequences of their negligence and complicity in allowing this rot to fester,” it said.
The EFF further claimed that Mafu has unleashed a reign of terror on staff who were blowing the lid on her dodgy activities by dismissing them without following proper human resources processes.
The party also demanded the department be placed under administration and Mafu be suspended pending a full investigation in her alleged corrupt activities.
According to reports, the document urged that Mafu be charged with misconduct, but months later she was appointed as acting director-general.
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