- Gauteng Health MEC to challenge SIU report that led to him being discharged from his responsibilities.
- Premier David Makhura discharged Masuku based on the SIU preliminary report.
- Masuku says the SIU has confused the roles of an Executive Authority vs an Accounting Officer in its finding.
Discharged Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku has instructed his lawyers to apply to set aside the findings of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report, which places him at the centre of the irregular procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the department.
"The SIU report makes incorrect and non-factual findings about my role as Executive Authority. It is unclear whether the report is final, and to this end I have written to the Premier to explain to him that, in fact, and in law, I will be exercising my rights to review the findings in a court of law to set them aside," Masuku said in a 13-page statement on Friday.
This comes hours after Premier David Makhura discharged Masuku as the Gauteng Health MEC, based on SIU findings from a preliminary report that he failed "to execute his function in compliance with the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA)".
According to a News24 source, Masuku is expected to be redeployed to the Gauteng legislature.
Makhura further stated that the SIU investigation is still pending and he "is interested in all the facts".
He also mentioned that he would gladly reappoint Masuku to the post, should the final report exonerate Masuku.
Masuku adds that it is clear to him the SIU "is either under extreme pressure from the legitimate public outcry against corruption and the need to ensure accountability or it is deliberately engaged in politics for ends that are yet to be established".
"Our law enforcement agencies must never substitute principle for populism and certainly must never abandon the age-old principle: fiat Justitia ruat caelum - let justice be done even though the heavens may fall. Elementary errors cannot be justified," he further explained.
Masuku is of the view that the SIU report has done the following:
- Ignored all other affidavits, including his, and chose to rely on one affidavit.
- Makes no reference to the information, facts and documentary evidence presented by me and my office.
- Confuses the roles of an Executive Authority and the Accounting Officer and, thereby, undermines the principle of the separation accountability.
- Makes no connection between evidence and findings. The biggest evidence being that I did not interfere in Covid-19 PPE procurement and did not steal people's money.
- Uses innuendos in a manner that gives an impression that they are engaged in political speech rather than the search for truth and facts.
- Relies on untested evidence, which is then used to make insinuations and arrive at erroneous findings.
- Relies on wrong sections of the PFMA to make inaccurate and unprecedented findings, which may undermine proper governance itself.
- Imposes decisions and powers on me that I have nothing to do with, even though evidence and prescripts point to a different reality.
- Engages in an exercise of mandate overreach by attempting to go beyond the search for criminality to make commentary about my performance, without even referencing the contract I signed with the Premier.
Masuku further stated that he will not "ventilate further the arguments of which will rely on the very crucial facts ignored by the SIU" because he needs to exercise restraint and follow the law to get a fair and judicious outcome.
"However, at this stage, I will say this, it is extremely unfair for certain media outlets, the SIU and all those engaged in peddling falsehoods to suggest or imply that I failed to exercise oversight on Covid-19 PPE procurement.
"I started the investigation. I instructed the Head of Department to ask for an investigation as early as 17 April 2020, barely four weeks into the National State of Disaster, ahead of all other provinces," he concluded