SIU staff given ‘taxpayer-funded’ sex toys – report

According to a report in the Sunday Independent, a row has erupted at the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) following various “intimacy workshops” in which female staffers were allegedly offered sex toys “as gifts”.

The paper’s sources told it that eight such workshops were held in each of the unit’s regions and cost the state entity an alleged amount of R300 000.

Reportedly, the “service provider … displayed various sex toys which were then given to the women as gifts”.

The SIU’s spokesperson Nazreen Pandor reportedly defended the workshops as an “employee wellness initiative” for all female employees. Pandor also said that the SIU had not spent any money directly on sex toys but that the service provider had thrown the toys in as an added bonus “at no additional cost”.

However, some of the female staff reportedly found the “sex workshops” insulting, offensive and embarrassing, particularly at a time when state entities have been asked to cut back on spending.

One said that many of the women were scared to take home the gifts, which supposedly included “body dew lotion, educational books, playing cards, sensation lotion” and other items.

The report further revealed that the SIU’s internal integrity officer, Bongani Mpungose, had asked the auditor-general to investigate “the expenditure on sex toys paid by the SIU”.

The paper said that Mpungose had allegedly been “slapped with disciplinary charges” after blowing the whistle on the matter, but the SIU denied that any of its senior staff members were facing any charges.

However, the paper claims it had seen evidence that Mpungose had indeed been charged.