‘Blanket-gate’: Department wasted R14 million on salaries

Opposition parties say the R14 million worth of salaries paid to suspended Department of Social Development (DSD) officials implicated in corruption was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The KwaZulu-Natal DSD confirmed that more than R14 million worth of salaries was paid to officials who were suspended after being implicated in the Covid-19 blanket tender fraud worth R22 million, and a total of R816 966 was paid in 13th cheque payments.

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In 2020, the department acquired 48 000 blankets at the inflated price of R22 million as part of what the department claimed was its response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

According to the department, through the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), amounts of R864 000 and R718 550 have already been recovered and recoveries were ongoing.

DA
The DA in KZN said it regarded it as a grave injustice that the salaries were paid to individuals sitting at home, doing nothing.

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The DA has always maintained that officials implicated in this saga should have been suspended without pay. We have also stated that they should be criminally charged, given that they allegedly stole from the poor,” said DA KZN spokesperson on Social Development Mmabatho Tembe.
According to a parliamentary reply by the DSD head of department Nelisiwe Vilakazi, a criminal case was opened in Pietermaritzburg, but the National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute.

Tembe said KZN’s DSD was already struggling on every front, with inadequate funding to deal with the vast number of social ills plaguing the province.

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“This R14 million could have been used to establish more gender-based violence shelters in KZN as this scourge remains at an all-time high; provide more funding to the many KZN NGOs facing closure and struggling to pay utility bills; provide more SAPS victim-friendly rooms and create safe spaces for vulnerable and abandoned children; provide more social workers to assist with psycho-social issues within our communities and; fix or buy more vehicles for social workers so that they can provide services to our communities.”

IFP
IFP provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli said it was pleasing to see that an investigation was under way; however, he said it was impossible to recover losses from corruption as they were not only monetary, and people’s lives were negatively affected.

We wish to see those who are involved in this corruption being brought to book. It must not just be a window-dressing act by the department. The investigations must leave no stone unturned; it must go to the extent of disclosing all those involved no matter how senior they are.”
Ntuli said the money could have been put to better use and benefitted the poor people of the province.

“In KZN, there are people who are still living in dire conditions. When funds in this important department are not used for what they were intended for, it is the people that suffer.”

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Vilakazi said the department was doing everything within its powers to expedite the finalisation of the misconduct cases.

“Twelve officials were recommended to be charged with misconduct,” she said. “Cases against the nine have been finalised. The hearings against the three remaining are scheduled for June 19 to July 7.”