[ad_1]
The Minister for Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS)
Minister for Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, says she is determined to fight corruption, but her recent actions raise more questions.
During the prompt response to the spread of Covid-19, Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu spoke regularly about the need to urgently provide water services to communities across the country and to “densensify” informal settlements.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the minister said the Department of Basic Education is providing R600 million to help his team improve water and sanitation facilities at 3,475 schools across the country before they reopen and that Infrastructure updates made during the pandemic must be time consuming. long-term benefit to communities.
The press conference, however, focused not on preventing the spread of Covid-19 but on corruption.
The water and sanitation department, as it was called before joining human settlements, was notoriously ruined Under former Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and his successor, Gugule Nkwinti, they said he found him in “a mess” in 2018. Corruption allegations have been abundant and, according to the department, less South Africans had access to reliable water services in 2019 than in 1994.
“We promised that we would do everything to be able to reject any perception of corruption,” Sisulu said Wednesday, referring to the commitment she made when she was appointed minister in May 2019.
“He has taken most of my tenure in my administration dealing with these cases.”
The minister explained how her department is trying to fight corruption. She officially accepted the delivery of a water integrity and corruption surveillance network report on grafting in the sector, a report that was published months ago.
His briefing on Wednesday follows accusations that his advisers have been trying to use their positions within his department to influence deals and raise money to pay debts related to Sisulu’s short campaign to become president of the ANC in 2017. and pay for a possible campaign to enter the national party conference 2022.
One of Sisulu’s close advisers is accused of trying Pressure Leaders of the water boards Amatola Water, in the Eastern Cape, and Lepelle Northern Water, in Limpopo, to manipulate drought relief tenders to favor a specific company.
The Amatola and Lepelle water boards have been placed under an “executive care agreement,” director general of human settlements Mbulelo Tshangana said on Wednesday.
“In fact, we should have put them under administration from day one,” he added.
Sisulu did not directly address the allegations by the water board leaders, although she and all others involved have flatly denied the claims, but the suggestion was that they were trying to save themselves by making accusations against the minister.
The minister’s actions, however, raise questions. While previously denying that its own National Rapid Response Task Force (NRRTT) advisers were corrupt and attempted to raise funds for their political ambitions, Sisulu would have decided to dissolve the team because, according to correspondence Reported in the media, she said that certain members had used their positions to pursue their own business interests, tarnishing their reputation.
His spokesman denied that the team had been dissolved.
“We have discovered that over a period of time this department has had systemic issues of mismanagement, fraud and corruption and we hope that the systems we have gone through, the issues we have analyzed, will help us have the kind of clean government we expect. eagerly, “Sisulu said Wednesday.
Its chief executive officer, Tshangana, said 138 department officials have been convicted of claims related to corruption and mismanagement since Sisulu became minister and some high-level employees have been fired or suspended without pay as a result.
Tshangana said the department had asked the Treasury to forgive R10 billion of its recent R16.6 billion in irregular spending because it was taking action against the employees involved.
“Irregular spending will not be tolerated, it will not go away until you go after criminals,” he said.
Sisulu appointed advocate Terry Motau SC to investigate allegations of fraud, corruption, and irregular spending within the department. Motau led the investigation into VBS Mutual Bank, which revealed that R2 billion had been looted.
He was also appointed by former Minister Mokonyane to investigate corruption in the water and sanitation department between 2014 and 2016. DM
Comments: share your knowledge and experience
Please note it must be a Maverick Insider to comment. Register here or if you are already an Insider.
