JOHANNESBURG - A senior Transport Department official is blowing the whistle on alleged dodgy procurements amounting to R15m.
Research Director Esethu Hasane claims officials spent millions on questionable communications contracts.
This includes livestreaming government events that attracted very few viewers.
He alleges that some of the deals were structured to avoid scrutiny.
Hasane now fears for his life.
" So, you had a situation where the department would have people, 100 people, for example, watching on YouTube, and you would have the department paying R400,000 or R600,000 for that per, event. So, to me, it did not make sense why you would close a porthole, for example, that is fixed for R5000 with a live streaming budget of R400,000 or R600,000.
So, I continued to object that. And because I joined the communications unit, I was in a privileged position where I was organizing these press conferences, organizing ministerial events, and I would actively block the service provider. Where things really got heated, was when the live streaming service provider was now asked to do adverts.
"I objected to that in internal meetings of the department in communications that you can't have now a live streaming service provider doing adverts. We're a big department. We have entities like SANRAL, like Prasa, who do impressive work through competent advertising agencies. And of course, majority rules, so I was m- beaten down there.”
Hasane said he continued to resist and the service provider reported it to his supervisor.
"That service provider called me, and I consider that a security risk. Another service provider is not going to call me if I'm a threat to now a R15m contract.
They can kill me. So, I'm here because I don't feel safe. The management of the department is not providing me with protection. Every time I raise something to the management, I am threatened with action. When I raised this to the department, the DG called me an adversary of the department.”
The department responded to Hasane’s allegations in a statement.
“The Department takes allegations of financial irregularity very seriously. Consequently, the Acting Director-General, Mr Mathabatha Mokonyama, ordered an independent investigation by Bowmans law firm into these allegations. The investigation is already underway. Accordingly, we request the public and Mr Hasane to give the Department time to investigate and take remedial action if the investigation indicates breach of the regulatory environment.”
The department further said Hasane was not victimised.
“The Department wishes to state that Mr Hasane's allegations of victimisation because he has blown the whistle on financial irregularities are devoid of the truth. These allegations of harassment were dismissed with cost by the Pretoria Magistrate Court following his court application for protection order.
“Similarly, these allegations were also dismissed with cost by the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council. His request to both the Public Protector and the Public Service Commission to investigate allegations of harassment was also unsuccessful.”