GroundUp reports that more than six months since the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD) suspended 13 officials, ten of them have returned to work after the department failed to hold disciplinary hearings. Three officials are still suspended.

Three officials were suspended in September, one in December and nine in January. At the time, the department was under the leadership of MEC Mbali Hlophe. In several advertorials paid for by the department, Hlophe said that the suspensions were a result of forensic audits of the department’s funding of non-profit organisations and part of her crackdown on corruption in the department. But the forensic audit has yielded little evidence of corruption, with most of the organisations flagged by the investigation now cleared. The forensic audits caused serious delays in the funding process, with hundreds of organisations waiting more than two months to receive their subsidies from the GDSD. Details of the charges against the officials have not been made public, but Hlophe’s spokesperson previously said the charges included “gross negligence and failure to perform duties”. Apparently, the remaining three officials, who were suspended in September, are in arbitration with the GDSD. The officials claim they have not been given access to the forensic audit that supposedly implicated them.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Daniel Steyn, Joseph Bracken & Raymond Joseph at GroundUp

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