News24 reports that three years after they were implicated in a R4.9 million Covid-19 corruption scandal involving blankets meant for the poor, three chief directors in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Social Development (DSD) have yet to account fully before a disciplinary inquiry.
In April, the department put all its suspensions, including the three senior managers, on hold and instructed the employees to return to work "as part of a broader government decision to ensure timely and efficient finalisation of all disciplinary hearings", in line with a provincial government circular on 6 February 2023. The circular requested all departments to review all current precautionary suspension cases, pushing all departments to ensure that employees were "gainfully employed while finalisation of their cases was still pending". The DSD then scheduled the disciplinary hearing for the three senior managers to take place in July, but a spokesperson advised that the hearing would only be completed in December. He said: “The disciplinary hearing for three chief directors is now at the tail end. The matter sat on 19 to 23 July 2023. However, it was not finalised. The matter was then postponed to 30 November 2023 to 8 December 2023. The delay to complete this matter should be attributed to the busy schedule of the presiding officer, advocate Moerane.” It emerged in June that the provincial department had paid out more than R14 million in salaries, bonuses and leave days to suspended employees, who were at home after being implicated in the blanket tender deal. These salary payments preceded the provincial government's decision to instruct suspended employees to return to work. Meantime, the National Prosecuting Authority has declined to prosecute.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Soyiso Maliti at News24 (subscriber access only)
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