Thuli Madonsela, the public protector, has slammed the Water Affairs Department for victimising a high-ranking official by repeatedly suspending her from work.
Central to the suspensions of Zandile Mathe, chief director for financial management, water trading, was her alleged refusal to approve a variation in a contract that would have cost the department an additional R5,5-million.
One of the partners in the beneficiary company that won the tender as a consortium was Sipho Shezi, former public works director general.
Mathe also forwarded allegations about irregular financial transactions in the department — including double payments to service providers — to Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of the department, Nobubele Ngele, the acting director general, and the public protector.
She has been suspended four times since March this year, at a cost of more than R1-million to water affairs. One of the suspensions followed a Labour Court ruling that an earlier suspension was unlawful.
Mathe has won three court battles with the department, which was ordered to pay her legal costs of R500 000. The department also commissioned auditors KPMG to investigate her at a further cost of R500 000.
The most recent suspension took place two weeks ago after the Labour Court reinstated her for the third time on May 24.
Kgalalelo Masibi, spokesperson for the protector, confirmed that the protector had found a prima facie case of victimisation.
After reading the court papers, Madonsela believed that the department was ‘possibly engaging in a relentless pursuit of a suspension declared unlawful by the [labour] court — this appeared to be unjustified and attracted cost orders against
the department”.
Madonsela also objected to the department’s continued opposition to Mathe’s Labour Court applications to have the suspensions set aside.
The protector ‘ s office has approached Sonjica to resolve the problems relating to Mathe.
Mathe was allegedly accused of ‘frustrating” the Sirius Kwinana Consortium, which was awarded a R47-million contract to run the department’s water efficiency drive.
The consortium’s partners are Sirius Development Foundation, co-owned by Shezi and business consultancy
Kwinana & Associates.
Three departmental sources told the Mail & Guardian that Mathe had raised hackles by refusing to approve the variation in the contract.
Sirius Kwinana had already benefited from an R8-million variation last September.
‘Zandile [Mathe] said that when the department was ready to get someone to do the job, it would issue a tender,” a senior official said.
Mava Scott, the department’s spokesperson, would not provide details of the charges against Mathe because the matter was still pending at a disciplinary tribunal.
But the M&G has learned that she is facing nine charges, including making it difficult for Sirius Kwinana to execute its mandate; trying to push for another service provider to do the work in question; and shredding CVs submitted by prospective deputy directors, in breach of the department’s archive rules.
Scott denied that the department was defying the court ruling, saying that Mathe was reinstated on May 24 as ordered and given the opportunity to make representations before it was decided to suspend her again.
Defending the department, Scott said: ‘We are pursuing this case in the interest of justice and the integrity of the public service and our department.”
He said the department has initiated an investigation of Mathe’s claims of internal financial irregularities through an internal auditor.
Mathe is also being investigated by KPMG, at the department’s request, over allegedly poor management of the water efficiency drive.
Mathe approached the protector under the Protected Disclosures Act.
Shezi confirmed that Sirius Kwinana had complained to Onesmus Ayaya, the department’s chief financial officer, about Mathe’s governance of the project.
She had repeatedly changed the scope of the work, resulting in delays in signing the implementation plan, among other things.
Shezi said the only contract variation order he had signed was in September last year but indicated that a new one was under discussion.
‘We might have had discussions about the new variation order. If so, there would have been discussions alluding to the need for a variation order involving my company,” Shezi said.
‘That talk would have related to a new scope of work as mentioned in the project implementation plan version 14 that was signed by Ms Mathe.”
Shezi provided documents showing that Mathe had approved the implementation plan and that the consortium’s scope of work was adjusted after discussions with her.
But a letter by Mathe accompanying the documents says that the scope of Sirius Kwinana’s work has been adjusted to include only a forensic investigation of the construction chief directorate.
It differs from the one Mathe was trying to block before she was suspended, which was discussed by the departmental bid adjudication committee on May 14, 21 and 28.
The M&G has seen minutes of the meeting, at which a request was made to increase the contract amount by R5.5-million.
The newspaper has seen a letter from Norman Mudau, who is acting in Mathe’s position while she is suspended, to Ayaya seeking approval for a ‘deviation from original scope of the project” for Sirius Kwinana. Mudau and Ayaya signed the letter on May 18 and 19 respectively.
Minutes show that two weeks after the application was presented to the bid adjudication committee, it was decided that it should not be approved because ‘the matter is sub judice, as the office of the public protector is investigating”.