COSATU welcomes action against alleged Nkandla profiteers

The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the report in the City Press (20 July 2014) that 13 senior government managers - who sat on the Bid Adjudication Committee that awarded contracts for the R246m upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead - have been charged with maladministration.

This follows investigations by the Special Investigating Unit, who recommended to the Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, names of officials to be charged with procurement irregularities, transgressing provisions of the Public Finance Management Act and failing to follow supply chain prescripts in connection with the upgrades.

COSATU however hopes that these are not just junior officials being used as scapegoats, and thus welcomes the assurance by the minister's legal advisor Phillip Masilo that "No official is made a scapegoat; everyone should account for his or her role in the project. Everyone found to have done anything wrong will be dealt with irrespective of the position".

Just as important is for equally tough action to be taken against private contractors who benefitted from irregular procurements, in line with the firm commitment by the African National Congress that "all public office bearers, officials and private sector companies involved in any maladministration must be brought to book and all funds that were acquired inappropriately must be recovered".

COSATU has never questioned the need for the state to take adequate measures to secure the President and other public office bearers, which is normal anywhere in the world. But, as we said when the Nkandla scandal first broke: "For the government to spend such a grotesque amount of public money on any one person is shocking and grossly insensitive to the workers, the poor and the homeless...

"All those who have been found to be behind this gross misuse of public funds must be held accountable, including any political office bearers who approved the use of these massive amounts of public money, or failed to monitor and stop the runaway expenditure".

And this must not just apply to Nkandla. The same City Press reported that two directors of Public Works who deal with accommodation for ministers and senior government officials, have been charged and dismissed for irregularities related to the R60m renovations of ministerial homes in Pretoria, after the SIU found that a contractor had been paid an extra R2.6m without supporting documentation.

The SIU is also investigating why R15m had been spent on renovating a house in Cape Town for Rural Development Minister Gugile Nkwinti, well above the property's actual value.

COSATU repeats its call for the publication of all the names of all the service providers, including the names of all their directors and shareholders. In particular we want to investigate whether there are any instances of officials allocating contracts to their own or family members' companies.

The guiding principle that must be observed and enforced is that public servants and representatives must choose between public service and private business, and never get involved in both at the same time. As a way of monitoring this, all government officials involved with supply chain management must be subjected to lifestyle audits.

Statement issued by COSATU national spokesperson, Patrick Craven, July 23 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter