Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has denied reports that he has succumbed to DA pressure by releasing the 47 forensic investigation reports, which have resulted in more than 88 people being sanctioned for their involvement in alleged theft and irregular financial practices.

On Wednesday, Lesufi released another batch of forensic investigation reports, which were referred to the Public Protector, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for investigation.

Lesufi announced the removal of three Heads of Department (HODs) after they failed their lifestyle audits for the second time.

The audits, conducted by the SIU, revealed that 37% of senior officials assessed were either high-risk or failed to satisfactorily explain their finances.

The reports from multiple departments covered alleged abuse of state resources, irregular and unauthorised expenditure, theft, unfair labour practices, ghost employees, and suspected fraud. Some reports date as far back as 2016. 

According to Lesufi, 88 people have been sanctioned and held accountable for transgressions emanating from the findings and the recommendations of the investigations, with at least R2 million of the R3 million that was lost due to financial misconduct having been recovered.

Overall, based on these 47 reports, approximately 88 people have faced consequence management, and 55 criminal cases have been registered with law enforcement by the departments. This reflects the Gauteng Provincial Government’s (GPG) commitment to accountability.

“This means that almost 60% of the value lost through fraud and corruption was recovered by the GPG departments in the last quarter,” Lesufi said.

However, the DA, through its provincial chairperson, Solly Msimanga, suggested that it is through their pressure that Lesufi has been able to comply.

“Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has succumbed to pressure from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and has announced that he will release 47 forensic investigation reports to the public. This is out of 177 that are awaited.

“We note that these reports are still waiting for the promised publication on the website. This has been long overdue, and more reports are still outstanding. We will continue to exert pressure on Premier Lesufi using the mechanisms at our disposal to force him to release all the reports,” said Msimanga.

However, reacting to the DA, spokesperson for the premier, Sizwe Pamla, denied that it is pressure from the DA that has resulted in the release of these reports, saying Lesufi had made the commitment to release these reports as soon as they are made available to him.

“It is not true that the premier has succumbed to pressure, as the premier made a commitment in 2023 when he took over that he would release these reports as soon as they are made available to him, when he was appointed late in 2022. When he came, he released some of the reports within months of his appointment. The fact that political parties have been impatient is understandable as they had hoped that they would extract something from these reports,” Pamla stated.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

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