Posh house a 'waste' of taxes

The wife of former correctional services minister Ngconde Balfour has been found guilty on six of the eight charges she faced in an internal disciplinary hearing.

Tozama Mqobi - the Gauteng correctional services commissioner - was accused of renting a R30000-a-month house on a golfing estate at taxpayers' expense - even though a government house had been renovated for her.

Mqobi was suspended on full pay in January when the Correctional Services Department launched an investigation into her renting of the house at Woodhill golf estate, in Pretoria East.

The department said yesterday that it welcomed the ruling of the Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council.

The conclusion of the case was testimony to the department's commitment to ensuring good governance, it said.

Mqobi and Correctional Services have until October 21 to submit mitigating factors to the chairman of the disciplinary hearing.

Attempts to contact Mqobi failed yesterday. Calls to her lawyer were not answered.

According to the bargaining council, Mqobi's living in a high-security estate complex was more "suited to a business executive seeking private accommodation in an up-market area than [to] a public servant looking for a suitable working facility".

Mqobi moved to the estate despite the government having spent R150000 renovating one of its properties for her use.

The council ruled that Mqobi was guilty of having exposed the government to wasteful expenditure after she vacated the property it provided soon after the renovations were made.

"Section 45 of the Public Finance Management Act encourages officials to utilise state-owned resources and to safeguard the resources of the state," it said.

"The employee committed the employer to a rental agreement whereas there was a house available for her utilisation."

The council was scathing about the Public Works officials who helped Mqobi find the private accommodation, saying they should have stood their ground and not agreed to her demands.

"They [the officials] were more than willing to pander to the whims of the employee and entertained her instructions and suggestions in order to prevent any threat that the employee [Mqobi] would take the mandate away from them," it said.

Mqobi was found not guilty on two charges, related to unduly interfering with Public Works procurement processes and treating department officials in a "disgraceful and deplorable manner".