Riyaz Patel
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has confirmed that she’s investigating South Africa’s Labour Minister amid allegations that he irregularly appointed 18 political allies to government jobs, including five women said to be in romantic relations with him, the Sunday Times reports.
The probe follows allegations by a former staff member against the Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.
Nxesi acknowledged the investigation which is laid out in a 10-page letter.
Mkhwebane informed Nxesi, who is also the national deputy chair of the SACP, that she is investigating allegations of “irregular appointments, nepotism and irregular procurement.”
“According to the document, Nxesi – the former public works minister – hired Clive Mtshisa as the department of public works’ deputy director-general of corporate services, which comes with a minimum annual package of R1.5m, ‘in order to manage the deployment of SACP members,'” the publication reported.
The said document further states that Mtshisa was deployed to ensure that tenders were awarded to service providers with links to the SACP, the publication said.
Mtshisa is the former deputy chair of the teachers union Sadtu in Gauteng.
“According to the anonymous complaint filed in March this year, Mtshisa and other senior figures at public works went on to appoint 17 top SACP members and Nxesi allies to senior managerial positions such as deputy directors-general, chief directors (who earn R1.2m a year) and directors of supply chain management, a departmental division in charge of dishing out multi-million-rand tenders,” the Sunday Times said.
In her letter to Nxesi, Mkhwebane also states that she is investigating Nxesi for allegedly promoting and appointing at least five female staff members to senior positions in Cape Town, the Eastern Cape and Pretoria “after they provided sexual favours to you.”
In a strong rebuttal, the SACP condemned the allegations of wrongdoing regarding the investigation into Nxesi.
The party said it “strongly denounces the malicious and baseless allegations manufactured to implicate it in alleged wrongdoing and dismisses such allegations with the contempt they deserve.”
In June, the SACP called on Parliament to launch on inquiry into Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office.
“It does not take rocket science to see what game is being played through such allegations,” the SACP said.
The document also states that the appointments were not advertised, and in some cases proper internal processes were not followed.
“This is a direct response to the allegations contained in a correspondence circulating on digital messenger platforms, purported to have been sent to comrade Thulas Nxesi, SACP Deputy National Chairperson, in his capacity as the Minister, by the incumbent Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, and to the inquiries about it.”
In the statement, the SACP said that those implicated had already responded to these allegations.
