Cape Town - The DA has asked the police to investigate Communications Minister Dina Pule for alleged corruption.
“I have today (Wednesday) asked the police to investigate Minister of Communications Dina Pule as well as Gugu Duda, chief financial officer at the SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC); Phosane Mngqibisa, head of Khemano Events; and Lulama Makhobo, group CEO of the SABC,” said DA MP Marian Shinn.
Shinn submitted her affidavit to the Cape Town Central police station.
She said the allegations against Pule related to appointments of people in the communications department and its entities Ä the SABC, the SA Post Office (SAPO), Sentech and the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA (Usaasa).
In March, the Sunday Times reported it had evidence of an internal audit showing Mngqibisa got friends and relatives places on the boards of the SAPO, Sentech, Usaasa and the SABC, with Pule's full knowledge.
The appointments included those of Mngqibisa's relative Lulama Makhobo to the position of SABC CEO, and that of his close friend Gugu Duda as its chief financial officer, the newspaper reported.
Shinn said section 34(1) of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act stipulated that anyone who held a position of authority and knew, or ought to have known or suspected, that any other person had committed an offence, had a duty to report it.
The department described the DA's move as “curious”.
“Her 1/8Shinn's 3/8 actions seem to either suggest that she is more than happy to use government resources to score cheap political points or prove that, indeed, the devil has ship-loads of work for idle minds,” Pule said in a statement released by her spokesman Siyabulela Qoza.
Qoza said Shinn and the DA had already approached the Public Protector and Parliament's joint committee on ethics and members' interests about the matter.
“Ms Shinn is well aware that these two legitimate institutions have not completed their work.” - Sapa