Public Protectors Recommendations Binding On Gauteng Infrastructure Department

Public Protector’s Findings

The Constitutional Court ruling on Nkandla, which emphasised the binding nature of the Public Protector’s findings, means that the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure (DID) must pay out a sub-contractor who worked on the infamous Suikerbosrand project in 2014 a sum of more than R9.6 million.

The Public Protector indicated that this amount should be paid over a period of two months, however DID – blatantly ignoring the Public Protector wrote to the contractor indicating that they would not pay.

Years down the line, and after placing the contractor in a financially precarious position, DID has agreed to pay – as long as it runs its own parallel investigation, much like the Cabinet did when it tried to avoid the Nkandla scandal.

Claims of Damages

Recently, a different contractor approached the Public Protector requesting that her office investigate DID for claims of damages suffered whilst working on a DID site.  Despite referral to the Head of Department of DID as well as the Chairperson of the DID Portfolio Committee, the department has still not carried out the action proposed.

Neither the Department, nor its political head can feign ignorance as to the binding nature of the Public Protectors recommendations.

I will be writing to Jacob Mamabolo, the newly appointed MEC of DID drawing his attention to these matters, and should he fail to respond, I will ensure they are referred back to the Public Protector.

 

Media enquiries:

Alan Fuchs MPL

DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Infrastructure Development

060 558 8313

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