EFF has evidence of ‘rot and wrongdoing’

The EFF opened a case against the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, the premier and certain politically connected individuals within the ANC.

This is after the department and its accomplices allegedly appointed 125 trainees without conducting proper interviews and vetting for the one-year learnership programme.

READ: EFF opens case against premier and provincial department

“ANC members deployed to government are aware that the chances of them being called to account are minimal given the weaknesses within the party and state security institutions. Under Nelson Mandela we saw people like the late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela being dragged to court and convicted for financial crimes. Under Mbeki we saw ANC Chief Whip Tony Yengeni sent to prison for corruption,”
Mashego said.

“But over the years that has stopped. ANC members suspected of corruption now appear before the party’s Integrity Committee, a toothless non-statutory body created to insulate members from justice.

The Zondo Commission itself is a sign of a flickering torch of accountability held by the ANC. What members are doing might look like own goals, but it’s how liberation movements behave once they have become entitled; once they have started talking about ‘our people’, a reference that should be reserved for sheep,” he said.

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The EFF alleged that the implicated officials hired their biological children, friends and relatives and that Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane had a role regarding the appointment of eight children and relatives of her personal protectors.

“The decision to lay the criminal and corruption charges against the above officials is in line with the combustion of fraud and corruption clause as stipulated in the Constitution of SA and comes after the EFF did a thorough investigation of the irregularities on the appointment of these learnership traffic c officers,” said the leader of the EFF in Mpumalanga, Collen Sedibe.

“The EFF has established through substantial evidence that rot and wrongdoing were at play during the entire process from
shortlisting, profiling of the candidates and appointments. The appointments are not in line with the advert requirements. The advert was specific that the opportunities are for the youth of Mpumalanga, but upon investigation, the EFF found a number of candidates with addresses from other provinces,” Sedibe said.

“Corruption and nepotism by the ANC have become so rampant that the party continues to hire individuals with not even the minimum requirement of a matric certificate and driver’s licence as traffic officers,” the DA’s Trudie Grové Morgan said. Although, the community
safety, security and liaison spokesperson, Moeti Mmusi, had said earlier on that all due processes were followed and that the selected candidates went through a rigorous selection programme that entailed writing tests and doing practical driving tests, Mtshweni-Tsipane conceded in a meeting she had had with other governmental officials that proper processes had not been followed.

“I was disappointed to learn in the meeting that proper due diligence had not been done by the department in relation to some of the material requirements that had to be met by prospective applicants. With this in mind and considering that the 2021 intake of students was a disproportional reflection of the geographic make-up of Mpumalanga, I have come to the conclusion that the process undertaken
by the department was procedurally and fatally flawed,” the premier said.

Mtshweni-Tsipane said she had nullified the process and would recommence with proper and effective due diligence that shall be overseen and verified by independent recruitment specialists.

“In essence, all 32 000 applicants will undergo the process of evaluation. Those that had originally applied need not apply again as their records are already in the possession of the department,” she said. The EFF said it welcomed the nullification of the irregular appointments
of the 125 traffic officers for the 2021 learnership intake after a 10-day battle with both the department and the premier’s office.