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By Mzilikazi Wa Afrika 
4h ago
Johannesburg – A forensic firm is expected to receive a “reward” of R250,000 for incarcerating officials who denounced the appointment of the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, and who do not have the appropriate qualifications.
Gordhan has appointed a forensic firm to find the whistleblowers who leaked information to the Sunday Independent about how his chief of staff, Nthabiseng Borotho, was appointed without the required qualifications.
Whistleblower hunting and the minister’s actions are in clear violation of the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), Central South Africa’s whistle-blowing legislation that came into effect in February 2001 and was amended in 2017.
The main objective of the PDA is to protect whistleblowers from suffering work-related injuries in their work environment.
As is the norm, instead of answering specific questions, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) issued a blanket statement to all the media that “some disgruntled officials, who may be affected by the current investigations, have mounted a public campaign posing as ‘whistleblowers’ under the Protected Disclosures Act, and that they are being targeted by the DPE.
“The Law does not protect the malicious leakage of information for ulterior purposes by those accused of acts of corruption and embezzlement.”
The Sunday Independent reported in March this year how Borotho was appointed under questionable circumstances to be chief of staff in Gordhan’s office without a post-matrix qualification.
Today, the Sunday Independent may reveal that a forensic firm, Abacus Financial Crime Advisory, has been appointed to investigate some 10 staff members suspected of leaking Borotho information.
The company was named last month.
On Friday morning Gordhan’s spokesman, Sam Mkokeli, accidentally posted a private discussion he had with the minister about the investigation on the corporate department’s national media WhatsApp group.
In the chat, Mkokeli asked the minister what was the basis for such an investigation and why the department was “turning a blind eye” to the accusations made against Borotho.
It is unclear when Mkokeli and Gordhan had the discussions via WhatsApp.
But in the message to Gordhan, the doctor asked the minister why the department “chose to investigate the leaks rather than the accusations against Borotho. Is there a particular reason why whistleblowers, who expose wrongdoing, are the target? “Mkokeli asks Gordhan.
The former journalist also asked the minister if the department is “turning a blind eye to accusations that Boroko is not qualified for the position she currently holds.”
Mkokeli, answering questions yesterday, issued a statement through his attorney Clifford Levin that said: “Genuine whistleblowers are an important part of our democratic existence and must be protected at all times. Pravin Gorhan was recently the face of our highest ethical and democratic ideals and we should never shut down whistleblowers on his behalf or right under their nose.
“The accusations against the chief of staff are easy to refute. The Department should simply release your CV to the public and deny that it has designated your family members. This story would die in a second.
“Forensic investigations into the whistleblowers will create an atmosphere of fear and dictatorship, exactly the things that the ‘New Dawn’ was destined to replace. Rather than listening to my advice, the CEO prefers to refer to me as an insider critic, which is eerily similar to the ‘smart nigger’ label that many of us received during the Zuma days.
“I have filed an internal complaint related to the staggering incompetence associated with the Chief of Staff and other issues symptomatic of deep intellectual insecurity. Gordhan is fully aware of my disdain for incompetence and dishonesty. “
The Sunday Independent may reveal that the head of Human Resources, Tshegofatso Motaung, was suspended on November 5, 2020 as a suspected main suspect in the leak. She was suspended a few days after Abacus investigators questioned her.
Gabrielle Zellerhoff, an Abacus associate who is in charge of the investigation, declined to answer questions Saturday.
“You should speak to the public companies department,” he said.
A staff member who asked not to be identified because he is one of the 10 people on the target list of officials selected for investigation by Abacus called the R250,000 offered to the company a “reward.”
“We blew a whistle on the chief of staff who we believe was appointed without even a certificate of registration and now we are being persecuted and victimized.”
The Sunday Independent reported in March that after Gordhan appointed Borotho, he turned the ministry into a family recruiting agency and reportedly hired his half-sister, Nancy Panduva, for the Cape Town office, as well as another member of the family, Debbie Malopa, as the driver. , in the same office.
Borotho signed Malopa’s appointment letter last May, as chief of staff, more than four months before she was appointed to the position.
Borotho and Malopa hail from Gugulethu in the Western Cape and grew up on the same street. Borotho also posted photos of herself and Malopa on her Facebook page.
The Sunday Independent confirmed that Borotho went to Fezeka High School in Gugulethu, where he wrote and failed his tuition in 1995.
Borotho started working as Gordhan’s chief of staff on October 1 last year at a salary of R1 251183 per year and receives a monthly allowance of R7 035.
Independent Sunday
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