Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has defended the former national commissioner of the Correctional Services Department, Linda Mti, saying allegations of improper conduct against him should be rejected.
Speaking during the department’s budget vote debate in the National Assembly on Friday, Balfour said the allegations against Mti were unfounded.
”The allegations of improper conduct with regard to the procurement processes should be rejected and laid to rest.”
A company with links to Mti is said to have drafted a large part of a multimillion-rand security tender that was subsequently awarded to it by the department.
However, Balfour said Mti’s hands were clean.
”The Public Service Commission had declared in their report that they had found nothing untoward about him,” he said.
Mti has since joined the local organising committee of the 2010 Soccer World Cup as head of security for the tournament.
The department has appointed Vernie Peterson, a former chief deputy commission for corporate services, as its national commissioner.
Balfour said Peterson, a former social worker, was the right man for the job.
”He is a soft-spoken tough cookie with brains of a genius, a heart of steel and a thick skin that will not crack under any heat,” he said. — Sapa