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Sunday Times reports that the fallout from the controversial R5bn job creation project concluded between the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Thuja Capital Fund could see Thuja’s owner, Mthunzi Mdwaba, who also chairs the Department of Employment & Labour’s (DEL’s) entity Productivity SA, out of a job.
Mdwaba stands accused of essentially taking money out of Productivity SA’s pockets, as his company’s agreement – to use a R5bn UIF grant to fund initiatives to save jobs and create new ones – was in direct competition with Productivity SA, which has the same mandate and also relies on UIF funds to do its work. DEL Minister Thulas Nxesi announced last week that he had ordered “consequence management” for senior officials in his department and its entities and it appears that Mdwaba could be in the firing line. It was exposed last year that the R5bn scheme would have benefited Thuja, of which Mdwaba’s musician son is also a director. In January, Nxesi ordered the suspension of the R5bn transaction and an independent forensic investigation into it. Meantime, Nxesi has informed his director-general, Thobile Lamati, that his fate is in the hands of President Cyril Ramaphosa. In a letter to Lamati, Nxesi said the forensic report had found irregularities in the department’s adjudication processes, for which Lamati was ultimately responsible. Lamati may be required to explain what action he took against other senior officials implicated in the scheme, including UIF commissioner Teboho Maruping. The latter was allegedly found to have ignored internal advice from the UIF's adjudication committees not to sign the agreement.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sabelo Skiti at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
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