In an unprecedented move, six managers of the Department of Public Works and Road, North West Province, have been put on suspension on alleged acts of misconduct.
They are: Chief Director District Operation, Kenneth Gill, and senior managers in the districts of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati (Vryburg); Dr Kenneth Kaunda (Potchefstroom) and Bojanala (Rustenburg).
The districts managers are Directors: Lazarus Kagiso Mokgosi; Collette Antony and Thabo Ndlovu. Among those also served with letters of between Friday and yesterday(Tues) are Alfred Mafune, Director Roads Planning and Design- currently Acting Chief Director Road Infrastructure- and Mbulelo Tundzi.
Tundzi is Director; Community-based Programmme which deals primarily with coordination of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP.)
The suspensions comes hard on the heels of the conclusion of government-commissioned forensic investigation by the private company, Open Waters, which began its probe in December 2014.
It is unprecedented that more than one-fifth of the top management team of a government department gets suspended almost simultaneously on more or less similar alleged acts of misconduct.
The department is of the view that the action taken to date against the six senior managers is part of consequence management aimed at putting in place corrective measures.
The department has also put contingency measures in place to ensure that the suspension of the six does not affect the rendering of service delivery to communities.
The department could neither deny nor confirm or even speculate if more employees could be implicated in the forensic report whether more officials were likely to be suspended following the reports' findings and recommendation.
