Handing report to police is not enough, Minister must appear before Parliament and suspend Mkhize

2 March 2015

I have written to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Labour, Lumka Yengeni MP, to request that the Minister of Labour, Mildred Oliphant, appear before the Committee to explain why it took more than two years to follow the recommendations in the Special Audit report into financial irregularities at Nedlac.

The Special Audit report found that the then Executive Director of Nedlac, Herbert Mkhize, and Chief Financial Officer, Umesh Dulabh, fraudulently and illegally enriched themselves to the value of almost R2 million using Nedlac funds, which included luxury car rentals, unauthorised trips for the director's wife, and purchasing of personal items. (See expenditure lists here)

Labour ministry spokesperson, Sithembele Tshwete, is quoted in reports today confirming that Minister Oliphant has since handed the Special Audit report over to the police. 

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes this decision, more needs to be done with regard to the very serious and damning findings of this report.

The DA yesterday called for the Minister to do the following:

Suspend Herbert Mkhize as her special advisor, with immediate effect;

Ensure both criminal and civil charges are instituted against Mkhize and Dulabh;

See to it that both Mkhize and Dulabh pay back all unauthorised money spent;

Ensure SARS conduct a full investigation and claim back unpaid tax and benefits;

Appear before the Labour Portfolio Committee to explain why she blocked the release of this report and failed to take action against those implicated.

Simply handing over the report to the police is not sufficient, and the Minister must now account to Parliament and commit to taking real, substantive action on this matter.

Statement issued by Ian Ollis MP, DA Shadow Minister of Labour, March 2 2015

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