Durban - The disciplinary hearing for 12 Department of Public Works officials linked to the Nkandla scandal should be made public, according to the Public Servants Association trade union.
Its labour relations officer, Roshan Lil-Ruthan, will represent the dozen officials at the internal hearing which is expected to begin in Durban on Tuesday.
Nine of the officials involved are from Durban, two are from Pretoria and one is from Cape Town. They all face maladministration allegations for decisions on security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s residence in Nkandla.
“It affects the leadership of the country and the Public Protector’s (Thuli Madonsela) report said it was taxpayers’ money that was used in the project,” Lil-Ruthan said.
The hearing comes after the release of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report last month.
First to face the music would be Durban-based senior project manager Jean Rindel, who is expected to be followed by Sam Mahadeo who was the first project manager to work on the Nkandla upgrades before he was replaced by Rindel in January 2010.
The SIU report recommended that disciplinary action be instituted against Mahadeo for not ensuring that the statutory and regulatory measures that governed the procurement of goods and services by the department were observed.
The pair told the SIU they had been pressured to fast-track the project and also instructed by their seniors “not to keep documents or destroy them”.
The other 10 officials were also involved in the procurement of goods, works or services for the upgrades and the payments that were made.
The SIU report stated they were negligent in their duties which resulted in the department incurring millions in irregular expenditure.
Other members of the KwaZulu-Natal regional bid adjudicating committee facing disciplinary action are:
* Thuli Ngubane - director: finance and supply chain manager
* Rakesh Dhaniram - director: key accounts management
* Nelisiwe Hlengwa - deputy director: disposals
* Irene Nel - deputy director: key accounts management
* Trevor Watson - project manager
* Bheki Dlamini - acting manager: supply chain management
* Sibusiso Chonco - deputy director: utilisation and contracts administration.
The others are Belinda Mlota, director of Prestige Projects in Cape Town, Itumeleng Molosi, director of projects in Pretoria and Jayshree Pardesi, director of key accounts management, also from Pretoria.
Lil-Ruthan said they expected the proceedings to take two weeks. They would all plead not guilty.
He described the hearings as “nothing more than intimidation tactics by the department” because they were looking for “scapegoats to shoulder the responsibility”.
The Mercury