Johannesburg – Gauteng acting Health MEC Jacob Mamabolo has directed the department to speedily act on long-standing disciplinary proceedings against officials.
This comes as Mamabolo continues to steer the ship in the department after MEC Bandile Masuku was ordered to step aside following a multimillion-rand tender irregularity scandal for the procurement of Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPEs).
The scandal saw senior officials resigning and some facing disciplinary action as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been roped in to comb all contracts that were issued during the pandemic in a bid to detect corrupt activity in how they were awarded.
Mamabolo now directed the department’s head, Professor Mkhululi Lukhele, to compile a full report on all long-standing disciplinary cases.
Lukhele has also been directed to immediately commence with hearings and work on fast-tracking the cases that were already under way.
“Disciplinary action if left pending for a long time has a negative impact on the department’s performance and affects the confidence the people of Gauteng have placed on us. It also leaves staff anxious as they are worried about their future,” Mamabolo said.
He said the delay in disciplinary action also constrained the department as it was now forced to continue to keep people who “by virtue of their transgression have demonstrated that they no longer have an interest to serve the people of our province”.
In the latest Covid-19 looting scandal rocking the department, chief financial officer Kabelo Lehloenya resigned in May before she was identified as being the key figure in the abuse of the Disaster Management Act to flout supply-chain management processes, while other officials, including supply-chain chief director Thandy Pino, have been suspended as the probe continues.
Political Bureau