Who blew the whistle on Pravin Gordhan’s chief?
A forensic company is set to receive a R250 000 “reward” to nail officials who blew the whistle on the appointment of the chief-of-staff to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and who does not have the proper qualifications.
Gordhan has appointed a forensic company to find whistle-blowers who leaked the information to the Sunday Independent on how his chief-of-staff, Nthabiseng Borotho, was appointed without the required qualifications.
The hunting of whistle-blowers and the actions of the minister are a clear violation of the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA), the central South African whistle-blowing legislation which came into force in February 2001 and was amended in 2017.
The main aim of the PDA is to protect whistle-blowers from being subjected to occupational detriment in their work environment.
As is the norm, rather than respond to specific questions the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) issued a general statement to all media that “some disgruntled officials, who may be affected by current investigations, have mounted a public campaign by portraying themselves as ‘whistle-blowers’ under the Protected Disclosures Act, and that they are being targeted by the DPE.
“The Law does not protect the malicious leaking of information for ulterior purposes by those accused of acts of corruption and malfeasance”.
The Sunday Independent reported in March this year how Borotho was appointed under questionable circumstances to be a chief-of-staff in Gordhan’s office without a post-matric qualification.
Today, the Sunday Independent can reveal that a forensic company, Abacus Financial Crime Advisory, has been appointed to investigate about 10 staff members suspected of leaking Borotho’s information.
On Friday morning, Gordhan’s spokesperson, Sam Mkokeli, accidentally posted a private discussion he had with the minister on the investigation on the department of enterprises’ national media WhatsApp group.
In the chat, Mkokeli was asking the minister what was the basis of such an investigation and why the department was “turning a blind” on allegations levelled against Borotho. Borotho and Malopa come from Gugulethu in the Western Cape and grew up on the same street. Borotho also posted photos of herself and Malopa on her Facebook page.
The Sunday Independent confirmed that Borotho went to Fezeka High School in Gugulethu where she wrote and failed her matric in 1995.
Borotho started working as Gordhan’s chief of staff on October 1 last year on a salary of R1 251 183 per annum and she receives a monthly allowance of R7 035.
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Source: IOL
