ANC tries to stonewall credit card abuse probe

30 July 2015 - 02:02 By Jan-Jan Joubert

The director-general of the Labour Department, Thobile Lamati, has been called to testify in a parliamentary hearing regarding the abuse of finances by a top labour official. A forensic audit report found that Herbert Mkhize, special adviser to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, allegedly took more than R1-million from Nedlac while he was its executive director.The audit found that Mkhize used his Nedlac credit card to pay for travel, car hire and shopping sprees at Makro.Despite being informed of the findings of the report, Oliphant appointed Mkhize as her special adviser at a further cost to the taxpayer.The report was also kept from the public for years, and only came to light after DA MP Ian Ollis obtained it through an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act and tabled it to the portfolio committee.There was extreme reluctance from ANC MPs for the "DA report" to be tabled.Yesterday ANC MPs continued to produce one reason after another why the report could supposedly not be discussed, only for Nedlac lawyers and DA MP Michael Bagraim, a prominent labour lawyer, to nullify each point.Former Sanco spokesman Dumisani Mthalane argued that the chairman behind the audit was biased, and hence it was inadmissible.But Bagraim noted that, under South African law, it was only the findings of the report that were relevant, not the circumstances of its initiation.Nevertheless, ANC MP and labour committee chairman Lumka Yengeni ruled that the report would be discussed only at a later stage because Lamati needed to present facts to the committee, and he was currently attending the cabinet lekgotla...

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