The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform dismissed more than 10 employees following a Special Investigative Unit (SIU) probe implicating them in possible fraud and corruption.
The DA now has it on good authority that the findings of the SIU investigation have subsequently been brought into question as the department has confirmed that 3 of the 10 employees have been reinstated on the grounds that during the probe, witnesses allegedly committed perjury and testified under duress due to alleged intimidation from the previous minister, Gugile Nkwinti, and his leadership.
These allegations raise questions as to whether the department under the leadership of Nkwinti pressured these witnesses to lie under oath to falsely implicate certain officials in order to cover up corruption.
The Minister himself has been caught up in allegations of corruption during his tenure at the Department of Land Reform. Nkwinti allegedly gifted his friend, Errol Present, a farm worth R97 million which subsequently fell into ruin.
The alleged list of reinstated employees includes the dismissed Director General, Mr Mduduzi Shabane, the former Deputy Director General for Land Reform Vusi Mahlangu. Mduduzi was dismissed on the charge of serious financial misconduct while Mahlangu was dismissed in the wake of the scandal involving Nkwinti and Present.
The DA will now refer Minister Nkwinti to the Public Protector in terms of the Executive Ethic Code of Conduct. The DA firmly believes that there is a scourge of political score settling at play within the department which is to the detriment of South Africans.
It is precisely this chaos and corruption on the part of the ANC government which has bungled the land reform process in our country and delayed justice for black South Africans who were brutally disposed of their land.
The DA will also write to the Public Service Commission and insist on an investigation into the alleged intimidation tactics used against witnesses to purge themselves as well as into the allegations of corruption against the 10 individuals. The Commission needs to enquire as to who all these reinstated or soon to be reinstated individuals are, why there has been a complete turnaround from these dismissals and what the individual charges were.
South Africa requires a government which roots out corruption and have the political will to implement land reform properly. The DA will not stand by while the Constitution is scapegoated for the utter mismanagement and corruption of the Department under the failed leadership of the ANC government.