/ 26 March 2010

The minister comments

The office of Sicelo Shiceka, minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, denied the allegations about the minister having pressured department employees to approve questionable financial transactions, saying comments from the forensic audit report were “unfair”.

“It would simply not be possible for him to do so with the kind of schedule he handles on a daily basis,” said his spokesperson Vuyelwa Vika.

Regarding the involvement of the ANC’s office in the procurement process, she said the ministry engaged all stakeholders and community structures when it visited communities.

“When the visits took place, the department had no dealings with the ANC, but it is possible that local people near Nqadu could have dealt with that office,” said Vika.

She said the involvement of the ministerial staff was just to provide a supportive role, but not to make decisions on procurement.

She said action was taken against a senior manager found to be at fault for irregular expenditure.

Vika claimed that Shiceka’s office was not aware of the alleged involvement of his chief protocol officer, Zolani Mkiva, in the facilitation of quotes and invoices from suppliers, despite the matter being mentioned by at least two officials during the investigation.

“But if he was, the ministry would certainly not have condoned that as it would have been totally unacceptable,” Vika said.