KZN department charges whistle-blower for lifting the lid on alleged corrupt activities

KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Thamsanqa Ntuli has promised to look into the Arts,Sports and Culture Department’s decision to charge a senior official for allegedly blowing the whistle on corrupt activities in the department.

The suspended department’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Zinhle Buthelezi is currently undergoing a disciplinary hearing, where the department has accused her of leaking confidential documents to ActionSA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango in 2023. As an alternative charge, the department accused her of failing to investigate who among the employees may have leaked this information to a private individual. She was suspended in May last year.

Weighing in, Ntuli said he was unaware of the matter and said he would request a full report to understand what was going on.

“We cannot allow the victimisation of corruption whistle-blowers. We are on record saying people must report corruption or wrongdoing irrespective of who is involved, so I am going to look into the matter,” said Ntuli.

Buthelezi appeared before the disciplinary committee on Thursday to answer for the charges and the case was postponed to Monday for closing arguments by her attorney. She is also facing charges of insubordination and breaching the condition of her suspension, as after her suspension she contacted the then Arts,Sports and Culture MEC Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba and asked whether he knew of her suspension. This was viewed as undermining the head of department’s (HOD) authority who had suspended her.

According to the charge, Buthelezi argued that the HOD had no right to suspend her without the knowledge of the MEC, the charge suggests that she failed to comply with her suspension. On breaching conditions of her suspension, the charge is that she removed some department documents from the office while on suspension without obtaining permission from the HOD as was stipulated in the suspension notice.

Buthelezi’s attorney Logan Naidu said it was strange that the department is punishing her for allegedly whistle-blowing on corrupt activities instead of investigating the alleged corruption. Naidu said his client denies leaking information and does not know who leaked the information to Mncwango.

“We are disturbed that the department has hired lawyers to prosecute an official for allegedly blowing the whistle on corruption activities. My client is wrongly targeted because Mncwango knows who the whistle-blower is, not her."

Mncwango, said that last year, he wrote to Ntuli asking him to intervene and protect the CFO from being victimised for being suspected as a whistle-blower but there was never any action. He denied that it was the CFO that provided him with information.

In 2023, Mncwango on Facebook wrote that there were allegations of corruption in the tenders that were awarded to build fitness centres in municipalities. He stated that although the money was transferred to a certain municipality, no fitness centre was ever built. He further posted the breakdown of payments to the municipalities by the Arts,Sports and Culture department showing the payment for the work that was not yet done. The department’s HOD argued that it was confidential information which Mncwango would not have known without the help of a department employee.

The department’s spokesperson Ntando Mnyandu said the matter took place under the previous administration and MEC Mntomuhle Khawula was also awaiting the report to understand what happened.