By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi says he will be filing an urgent court papers to set aside the R5 billion jobs deal between the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Thuja Capital.
Nxesi briefed the public and the media on the latest processes and actions that he has taken to set the agreement aside after allegations by the Thuja Capital’s CEO Mthunzi Mdwaba.
Mdwaba claimed Nxesi and three other ministers tried to solicit a bribe of 10% of the R5 billion in the deal.
Nxesi has denied the allegations saying that he only found out about the deal via the media.
“Let me be clear, I categorically deny the recent allegations of corruption. We must ask [why] Mdwaba waited nearly a year to come up with these allegations. Mdwaba will now have to prove these allegations in a court of law.”
“I signed my affidavit in support of the various orders, chief among being the setting aside of the argument.
Nxesi said he brought the application on an urgent basis.
“I have also requested the president to issue a specific proclamation to have this agreement to be investigated by the law enforcement agencies.
“It seems that Mdwaba has not approached the law enforcement authorities to report the alleged crime because he is content with making unsupported allegations against me in the hope that if he throws enough mud, some of it will stick,” Nxesi said.
Mdwaba made the explosive allegations last November that his company was on the cusp of closing the jobs project with the UIF.
However, the deal hit a snag last December after Nxesi announced his department would put on hold the project by the Thuja.
Mdwaba said the deal failed because he refused to agree to pay bribes worth R500 million to Nxesi, African National Congress (ANC), secretary general Fikile Mbalula, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and Higher Education’s Blade Nzimande.
The Minister said that as preparations to file papers in court continues, further allegations have been made, by an anonymous individual seeking immunity for past crimes committed.
The allegation is that the former Director-General of the department, Thobile Lamati and the Minister colluded in illegally siphoning off R3 billion from Labour Activation Programmes (LAP) 11 programmes.
“On the last issue of R3 billion, I am happy that this will be investigated by law enforcement agencies to establish the processes followed and the roles of all parties concerned. To this end, I have instructed all staff members to fully cooperate with state agencies investigating the matter,” said the Minister.
Nxesi has also mandated the Department of Employment and Labour (including the UIF and LAP), through the Acting DG Dr Alec Moemi , to strengthen internal business processes including risk management, financial controls and consequence management, as well as to increase capacity in project and programme management, governance, and digitalisation to improve effectiveness and efficiencies among others.
He said the UIF and Compensation Fund organisational architecture has been comprehensively reviewed exactly to achieve these objectives.