Johannesburg – Pressure from parliament pushed President Cyril Ramaphosa to accede to a request to suspend Gwebinkundla Qonde, the director-general of the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.
In a letter to Ramaphosa, Minister Blade Nzimande painted a grim picture of the state of affairs at the National Skills Fund (NSF), highlighting some of the worst audit outcomes and how Qonde and officials at the public entity could not account for irregular expenditure incurred since 2015.
The NSF provides funding for skills development initiatives that are identified by the National Skills Development Plan 2030 as national priorities. The letter, dated May 24, reveals how Nzimande asked Ramaphosa to delegate him powers to put Qonde on precautionary suspension pending a forensic investigation into the finances of the NSF, which received a disclaimer audit outcome in the last financial year.
“This disclaimer opinion is a matter of grave concern to me as the executive authority. The matter has received the attention of Scopa [standing committee on public accounts] at its recent meeting referred to above [18 May],” said Nzimande.
During a briefing on May 18, Scopa told Nzimande that the NSF had been receiving qualified audit outcomes since the 2015-2019 financial years and directed a full-scale forensic investigation into the NSF. Nzimande told Scopa about the peculiar situation of Qonde in terms of reporting, a situation he also repeated in the letter to the president.
“The president is advised to take note of the peculiar dual role played by the director-general in relation to the NSF. On the one end, he is the accounting officer of the department that oversees the NSF, which means that the NSF is accountable to me as the executive authority of the NSF through his office,” Nzimande said.
“On the other hand, the act has designated the director-general to be the accounting authority of the NSF. This in effect means that the director-general in his capacity as accounting authority of the NSF is accountable to himself as accounting officer of the [Department of Higher Education and Training] .”
The auditor-general had found instances where invoices and proofs of payment were submitted but lacked supporting documents to confirm that these expenses were related to NSF projects.
Last Friday, Qonde was suspended by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, who was delegated by Ramaphosa to do so.
When asked earlier by Motsoaledi why he should not be suspended, Qonde, one of the country’s longest-serving director- generals, had said Nzimande had mistreated him since the minister returned to the department in 2019. Nzimande and Qonde are members of the central committee of the SA Communist Party and had enjoyed a close relationship.
But sources close to them said their fallout was a result of appointments of boards of sector education and training authorities.
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