JUSTIN ARENSTEIN and NIKI MOORE, Durban | Tuesday 6.10pm
THE Inkatha Freedom Party has appointed disgraced former Home Affairs director-general Albert Mokoena as a special consultant.
President Thabo Mbeki personally fired Mokoena from government last year following media revelations that he abused his position for personal gain. Mbeki’s intervention came after home affair minister and IFP president, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, refused to act against Mokoena.
IFP spokesman Reverend Musa Zondi confirmed on Tuesday that the party appointed Mokoena during the first week of January to restructure its head office on a three month consulting contract.
He refused to say how much the contract is worth but confirmed Mokoena will commute to KwaZulu-Natal once or twice a week but will work primarily from his Gauteng home. Zondi added that Buthelezi’s relationship with Mokoena while they worked together at Home Affairs played a crucial role in his appointment as consultant.
“We would not even have approached him otherwise because we would not have know of his skills. Buthelezi’s relationship played a crucial role,” said Zondi.
Zondi dismissed the damning findings of a disciplinary inquiry headed by former Labour Court Judge Puke Maserumule as distorted and insisted his previous record was irrelevant for his current job.
Maserumule found Mokoena guilty on several counts of misconduct, including conflict of interest, private use of State facilities, improper use of State vehicles and use of government officials for private work. Mokoena is still under criminal investigation relating to the disappearance of R2-million from the Independent Electoral Commission while he worked there. — African Eye News Service