The DWS will never shirk its responsibilities regarding disciplinary matters
The Minister and Department of Water and Sanitation have taken note of an article in the Daily Maverick titled: “Watergate - Whistleblower lifts the lid on probably the most perfect example of ANC state capture” by Angus Begg, which accuses the Ministry and the Department of blatantly disregarding reports by the former Minister’s Disciplinary Advisory Committee, further implying that the Ministry and Department are failing to ensure consequence management in respect of fraud and corruption cases. Not only is this an outright lie but is further a complete twist of information relayed to the said journalist, it carries the undertone of a preconceived agenda!
The article is based on reports from a whistleblower, who believes that the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr Senzo Mchunu, has ignored or discarded critical reports on fraud and corruption by both senior and junior departmental officials. Instead of being frustrated as alleged in the article, the whistleblower has strongly advised to either hand over the files to the Minister, approach the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) who is already investigating a number of corruption cases within the Department, to report the crimes that they have information on, or to approach the South African Police Service to open cases – failure to report a crime or expose criminality is a crime in itself!
The reports in question were compiled by the Disciplinary Advisory Committee, which was formed during the previous Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation’s tenure, to advise the then Minister and the then acting Director-General on disciplinary actions required, pertaining to any and all wrongdoings. The Minister is firstly surprised that the journalist is creating the impression that an Advisory Committee was in the same breath, a’ forensic audit organisation’, appointed to produce forensic reports. There is no such thing as a Ministerial Advisory Committee producing forensic reports that the journalist writes about!
The Disciplinary Advisory Committee did not include officials of the Department and comprised of Ministerial appointees, whose primary function was to advise the former Minister – these appointments were therefore linked to the term of office of the former Minister, which came to an end on the 5th of August 2021. A formal statement was issued on the 20th of September 2021, addressing the alleged disbandment of the various Ministerial committees. Minister Mchunu explained in no uncertain terms that their term was linked to the term of the Minister – as with all other Advisory Committees where such get established.
In respect of the article, Mr Begg submitted a set of questions, requesting Minister Mchunu and the Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips to respond; Dr Phillips indeed responded in writing, whilst the Minister requested a virtual meeting with Mr Begg so as to ensure that Mr Begg fully understands and comprehends the responses; the interview was held on Tuesday, the 5th of April 2022. The Minister is baffled that the journalist has misrepresented what the Minister said by alleging that no formal hand-over ever took place between the former Minister and Minister Mchunu – when in fact, Minister Mchunu stated that a virtual handover – not “verbal handover” as stated in the article had taken place, further stating that files were also delivered to his official residence.
During the interview, Minister Mchunu further explained that the alleged forensic reports were never handed over to him and the Minister wonders why the journalist insinuates that same are being discarded or disregarded, when they were never handed over to the Ministry.
Minister Mchunu explained that there were various matters which were at various stages of investigation by the SIU, ranging from the Giyani Pipeline Project to the War-On-Leaks programme. Apart from this, Mr Begg was alerted to another investigation where 5 disciplinary referrals had been made and 45 administrative action applications had been made for placing the implicated entities and individuals on the National Treasury database of restricted suppliers.
It begs the question: Why would Mr Begg want to promote his story by insinuating that the Minister is promoting or shielding corruption, when the Minister firstly, has no history with corruption and secondly, the Minister is relatively new in the Department and has no association with those alleged to be corrupt. References to “Watergate” and wild opinions on “perfect ANC state capture” are left to the journalist.
Having been taken aback by the article, Minister Mchunu had the following to say: “The contents of the article are rather disappointing; not only did I afford Mr Begg an opportunity to ask his questions and any other follow-up questions he might have had (an initiative rarely taken by a Minister), I took the liberty of personally calling him since he had further questions post the interview and I further directed the Department’s Corporate Services to assist! I want to state publicly that there is no chance that any activity associated with the Department currently and in future concerning corruption and fraud will go unpunished or be overlooked! Both Ministry and the Department have a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud and corruption and will pursue disciplinary action and ensure consequence management in all cases where there is evidence of fraud and corruption, without fear or favour. We are really hard at work, focused on ensuring that all the citizens of the Republic of South Africa are given access to clean water and sanitation services, and we will not be deterred by such articles!”
For more information:
Sputnik Ratau, Spokesperson for the Department of Water and Sanitation
Cell: 082 874 2942 or
Kamogelo Mogotsi, Spokesperson for the Ministry
Cell: 076 523 0085
