COOPERATIVE governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa has appointed a four-member task team to investigate his senior administrators, including departmental head Stanley Khanyile.
This follows allegations from workers that they may have had a role in Bhisho’s jobs for pals and sex for jobs scandals which shook the provincial government recently.
The task team – led by chair of the Transkei bar of advocates Vusumzi Msiwa – began last week and is expected to submit findings to Xasa by September 30.
Msiwa is assisted by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s law professor Adriaan van der Walt, South African Red Cross Society’s Mandisa Kalako and former Eastern Cape director-general and WSU lecturer Sintu Mpambani.
Xasa’s move follows claims contained in a memo he received in June where some senior managers were accused by National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) of nepotism and using their positions to demand sexual favours in exchange for jobs and promotions.
The union said Khanyile was “implicated in the intended ignorance of recruitment policy and employing foreigners and also not implementing the employment equity policy”.
The memo also demanded an end to “the appointments of friends, girlfriends and families”, without elaborating.
In July, the Daily Dispatch published a story of a woman in her 50s who claimed to have endured seven years of sexual assault, repeatedly being raped and degraded by her boss in Xasa’s department.
She submitted an affidavit detailing her gruesome assaults at the hands of her then immediate boss, who has since left the department.
Her alleged ordeal took place between June 2002 and August 2009.
The allegations of nepotism and managers using their positions to demand sexual favours in exchange for jobs first surfaced at the Bhisho legislature a few months back.
This prompted Premier Phumulo Masualle to set up a team led by safety and liaison head Ngaka Mosehana to probe the allegations across all provincial departments.
Speaker Noxolo Kiviet also launched inquiries into similar claims at the legislature.
Xasa yesterday said he felt obliged to assemble the independent team. “We regard this investigation as an internal matter. It has been necessary to engage a team from outside the department as these allegations are levelled against management.”
Khanyile yesterday declined to comment “until the task team concludes its work”.
Department spokesman Mamkeli Ngam yesterday said by appointing the team Xasa wanted “closure” on the allegations and “to ensure unity and cohesion” between management and the workforce.
Nehawu provincial secretary Xolani Malamlela said union membership welcomed the move.
“We have confidence in this team. It has our blessing because the MEC did engage us when he was formulating it. We suggested some of those in the team and we unanimously agreed on the terms of reference,” he said.
Xasa names new jobs-for-sex probe team
This follows allegations from workers that they may have had a role in Bhisho’s jobs for pals and sex for jobs scandals which shook the provincial government recently.
The task team – led by chair of the Transkei bar of advocates Vusumzi Msiwa – began last week and is expected to submit findings to Xasa by September 30.
Msiwa is assisted by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s law professor Adriaan van der Walt, South African Red Cross Society’s Mandisa Kalako and former Eastern Cape director-general and WSU lecturer Sintu Mpambani.
Xasa’s move follows claims contained in a memo he received in June where some senior managers were accused by National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) of nepotism and using their positions to demand sexual favours in exchange for jobs and promotions.
The union said Khanyile was “implicated in the intended ignorance of recruitment policy and employing foreigners and also not implementing the employment equity policy”.
The memo also demanded an end to “the appointments of friends, girlfriends and families”, without elaborating.
In July, the Daily Dispatch published a story of a woman in her 50s who claimed to have endured seven years of sexual assault, repeatedly being raped and degraded by her boss in Xasa’s department.
She submitted an affidavit detailing her gruesome assaults at the hands of her then immediate boss, who has since left the department.
Her alleged ordeal took place between June 2002 and August 2009.
The allegations of nepotism and managers using their positions to demand sexual favours in exchange for jobs first surfaced at the Bhisho legislature a few months back.
This prompted Premier Phumulo Masualle to set up a team led by safety and liaison head Ngaka Mosehana to probe the allegations across all provincial departments.
Speaker Noxolo Kiviet also launched inquiries into similar claims at the legislature.
Xasa yesterday said he felt obliged to assemble the independent team. “We regard this investigation as an internal matter. It has been necessary to engage a team from outside the department as these allegations are levelled against management.”
Khanyile yesterday declined to comment “until the task team concludes its work”.
Department spokesman Mamkeli Ngam yesterday said by appointing the team Xasa wanted “closure” on the allegations and “to ensure unity and cohesion” between management and the workforce.
Nehawu provincial secretary Xolani Malamlela said union membership welcomed the move.
“We have confidence in this team. It has our blessing because the MEC did engage us when he was formulating it. We suggested some of those in the team and we unanimously agreed on the terms of reference,” he said.
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