The former Head of Department (HOD) of the Gauteng Department of Social Development is now working as the Deputy Director General for the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disability despite being allegedly implicated in maladministration, fraud, corruption, and irregular expenditure. This is yet another example of how cadre deployment shields officials implicated in corrupt activities.
An investigation was commissioned into these allegations by former Premier David Makhura, who failed in his duties as per the report’s recommendation that she be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for criminal investigations.
It was also around that period when Premier Panyaza Lesufi was the acting MEC for Gauteng Social Development after the passing of MEC Thuliswa Nkabinde-Khawe in November 2019. Lesufi too, as acting MEC, failed in his duties as the political head of the department. The information contained in the reports, at the time of Tshabalala’s departure, the department had an accumulated irregular expenditure of R682 million.
In order to commission these reports, public funds were used; however, the portfolio committee was never taken into confidence about these reports once they were made available. This prevented the committee members from knowing that such reports existed and therefore unable to review the report as part of its oversight function.
According to media reports, Tshabalala received security clearance from the State Security Agency to be in her current role. It is because her previous bosses did not do their job of ensuring that she was referred to NPA for criminal investigation as recommended by the reports that were commissioned by the department.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will continue to push this issue to ensure that Tshabalala and many other officials implicated in corruption in Gauteng are held accountable. We will also be referring this matter to the Public Service Commissioner to ensure action is taken against Tshabalala and that she faces all the charges that she is implicated in.
Corruption and the investigation into allegations of corrupt activities take away valuable money from service delivery.
A DA government will be responsible and execute its constitutional obligations of ensuring that recommendations of reports commissioned by the department are implemented to protect public funds and ensure that the monies allocated to the department go to the empowerment of the vulnerable people of Gauteng.