Social development dept scandal: Last three suspended officials return to work | News24

Huge amounts of money have been wasted by the Gauteng Department of Social Development. (Illustration: Lisa Nelson/GroundUp)

• Thirteen officials in the Gauteng Department of Social Development were suspended in a “crackdown on corruption” between September 2023 and January 2024.
• Ten of the officials returned to work in July and the last three have now also returned to work. None faced disciplinary hearings.
• The suspensions occurred during the chaotic leadership MEC Mbali Hlophe and head of department Matilda Gasela. Gasela left in April amid corruption allegations. Hlophe lost her position after the May elections. 

---

The last three of 13 Gauteng Department of Social Development officials suspended during an alleged “crackdown on corruption” returned to work last week.

The three were suspended on full pay in September 2023, GroundUp reported.

Like the other 10 officials who were all suspended on full pay and who returned to work at the end of July, they were charged but never faced disciplinary hearings.

At the time of their suspension, the department was under the leadership of MEC Mbali Hlophe and head of department Matilda Gasela.

Gasela left in April amid allegations of corruption when her contract was not renewed. Hlophe was removed from the ANC-led Gauteng provincial government’s cabinet after the May elections.

READ | Gauteng social development department wants to buy a building but doesn’t know what for

On her watch, many organisations providing critical services to vulnerable people in the province were devastated by the department’s failure to allocate funding and pay subsidies.

The suspended officials were told that even though they had returned to work, they could still face disciplinary hearings, said a department source, who asked not to be identified as they were not allowed to speak to journalists.

Initially, they were suspended because of a 2016 forensic report. But later they were told that it was because of a much more recent report by forensic audit firm FSG.

Many of the FSG report’s findings were successfully challenged by the non-profit organisations named in it.

It also did not support or prove any of Hlophe’s allegations of corruption by any officials and merely found that there may have been “administrative mistakes” on the part of some of them.

Chaos under Hlophe

During Hlophe’s term, the department was racked by numerous controversies, which resulted in a funding crisis for many non-profit organisations dependent on government funding. Some of them closed down or retrenched staff and cut back services to keep their doors open.

This led to an apology by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, who was forced to intervene to try to resolve catastrophic funding failures by the department.

This was because of the pre-election furore over Hlophe’s handling of the social development portfolio, which saw tens of millions of rand in deviations from supply chain management processes.

The deviations were a bid to spend its budget by the end of the financial year.

Also on her watch, hundreds of homeless people in Tshwane shelters were abandoned after the department stopped paying an organisation to provide them services.

ALSO READ | Ranked: How transparent social development and its nine provincial depts are about spending billions

GroundUp has reliably learned that the new MEC, Faith Mazibuko, has instructed the department to pay the organisation.

Children’s centres shut down and Johannesburg’s biggest foodbank was forced to close its doors when its payments were delayed.

The department also admitted that the appointment of controversial audit firm Open Water Advanced Risk Solutions to probe a school uniforms programme, at a cost of R8.5 million, was irregular.

The department spent tens of millions of rand on dozens of paid-for online and print advertorials to try and repair Hlophe’s battered image.

READ MORE | Gauteng social development department finally pays struggling NPOs, 146 still await payment

Mazibuko’s spokesperson Lebogang Lukhele previously told GroundUp that the suspensions were an internal matter, and that she could not disclose any details to the media.

Spokesperson for the department, Motsamai Motlhaolwa, read questions sent to him via WhatsApp but did not respond.