A senior Sassa official in the Eastern Cape, along with several service providers and prominent figures, has been implicated in an alleged fraud and corruption case being investigated by the Hawks, relating to alleged illegal payments amounting to R4.9m which were meant for departmental outreach programmes.
An internal forensic investigation at Sassa in East London in 2013, led by private investigators SABET, revealed that senior communications manager and spokesperson Luzuko Qina, flouted procurement procedures when he allegedly awarded tenders to the tune of R4.9m to seven companies known to DispatchLIVE, resulting in the agency incurring irregular expenditure.
Sassa national spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi this week confirmed that Qina had also been charged internally for allegedly “flouting supply chain management processes” relating to the R4.9m.
He said Qina had reached an agreement with the agency, that the internal disciplinary hearing be escalated to the CCMA.
Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela this week said: “Investigations are taking place and are at an advanced stage, and the reason it is being investigated at our national office is that these programmes were under the national department of social development.”
“It has taken the Hawks so long to come forward because this is an extensive [investigation]. All the provinces are being investigated, so this a complex investigation.
“Several service providers are being investigated; public officials and other prominent figures are implicated,” Mgolodela said.
She refused at this stage to give the names of others on their radar.
According to Letsatsi, Qina subsequently proposed that the agency instead demote him from a senior manager to a manager position.
“The employer representative in this matter responded and requested to secure a mandate and the matter was adjourned for the consideration of the proposal, which would be submitted in writing the following day,” Letsatsi said.
He said Qina had submitted a written proposal on April 23, wherein his legal representative proposed the demotion from senior manager position to a manager position at level 12, and further placement on the last notch of level 12.
On May 5, Letsatsi said, Sassa responded to Qina’s proposal and indicated its willingness to consider the demotion, but proposed placing him on level 11 instead.
“Qina responded by pleading with the employer to reconsider placing him on Level 11 instead of level 12, due to substantive reasons advanced which were able to convince the employer.
“On May 24, Sassa gave a revised mandate to demote Qina and place him at Level 12 and communicated it to Qina’s representative.”
Letsatsi said in June, Qina’s legal representative “reneged on his initial proposal for a sanction of suspension without pay for five months only”.
“The employer turned the new proposal down and stated that the matter should be dealt with on its merits before the commissioner.
“However, Qina’s representative submitted that she was not available from July 19 to September 17 due to high court commitments.
“The parties agreed to convene an inquiry at the CCMA from October 4 to 8, as a full-blown disciplinary inquiry to deal with merits of this case,” Letsatsi said.
DispatchLIVE has seen a confidential departmental “notice of disciplinary enquiry,” dated October 28 2019, charging Qina for committing R4.9m of public money without obtaining approval from the CEO or anyone else.
The cash was spent on ministerial outreach programmes (MOP) in Engcobo and Nelson Mandela local governments.
He is also accused of making a “duplicate payment” (double payment) of R306,270 for catering during the outreach programme’s Engcobo visit.
Other charges relate to the bypassing of the competitive procurement bid procedures to award tenders to four favoured companies, ordering junior staff to doctor documents to allow for payments before projects were completed, paying companies which did not have the proper order numbers and did not do the work, and failing to hold the companies to account.
Acting Eastern Cape Sassa regional executive manager Oscar Mpeta said the matter was being probed by their head office and he was not in a position to comment.
“I’m surprised that you have these details I don’t know about. This is a current case and it is ongoing and it is being handled by our head office.
“Qina was not charged in our province and his case is ongoing and I don’t know if we can divulge issues about an ongoing case,” Mpeta said.
When DispatchLIVE called Qina, he said his enemies were trying to “pull the mat from under his feet”.
He disputed the allegations.
“I don’t know about what you are raising with me. I’m working and there’s no case against me.
“Maybe it’s enemies who are plotting against me. It’s just a plot against me,” Qina said.
DispatchLIVE
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