Durban - OPPOSITION parties are calling for Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola to restore leadership and order at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Correctional Services.
This followed the suspension of KZN regional commissioner Mnikelwa Nxele in December pending investigations into procurement irregularities.
He was suspended a day after returning from another suspension on a case of alleged insubordination.
Last year, Nxele had lodged a complaint with the Public Service Commission (PSC) against a decision by the national commissioner Arthur Fraser to re-instate a senior official, DJ Makhaye, who was found to have made irregular claims for subsistence and travel to the amount of R140486.40 between 2009 and 2010.
Last week, Nxele attempted to return to work on the grounds that 60 days had lapsed without any disciplinary action being taken against him, but was prevented from doing so, by about 30 men from the Correctional Services Emergency Support Team.
The IFP felt Lamola should intervene and restore stability. MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said they were unhappy with the current situation within the department and felt that leadership needed to be restored.
“The regional commissioner has been suspended many times with full pay and re-instated. He has taken the department to court several times and all that comes with costs. Our expectation is for the department to implement court findings as and when they are given. The department should stop engaging courts on frivolous claims. We appeal to the minister to intervene and put this to finality,” Hlengwa said.
Nxele claimed his current suspension, just like the previous ones, were an attempt by Fraser to get rid of him.
“Decisions on bids are made by the bid adjudication committee, and not by an individual. How is it that I’m singled out? I feel I’m being victimised and this has brought untold pain and suffering to my family. It’s time that the minister and the president intervened in this matter,” he said.
Werner Horn, DA member of the department’s portfolio committee, felt that the difficulty with Fraser was that he had no experience in handling management issues within the confines of the rules applicable to the public service. “At the State Security Agency, where his experience was obtained, the way in which personnel was dealt with was much more ‘cloak and dagger’ than ‘compliance’. The possibility that this whole issue has to do with factional political battles rather than performance is worrying. We will ask that Fraser and the minister explain the issues and the costs involved to the portfolio committee.”
Singabakho Nxumalo, Correctional Services national spokesperson, said President Cyril Ramaphosa, under proclamation 10 of 2018 mandated the Special Investigating Unit to investigate procurement irregularities for the KZN region.
Attempts to get comment fromLamola were unsuccessful.