Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu yesterday lashed out at her cabinet colleagues for implicating her in wrongdoing relating to the R206-million security upgrade at President Jacob Zuma's private home in Nkandla.
Bogopane-Zulu, who was deputy minister of public works when the Nkandla upgrade began in 2009, was named in a government task team report, along with former minister Geoff Doidge, as among those whose roles in the controversy should be investigated.
But a fuming Bogopane-Zulu - who is now deputy minister of women, children and disabled people - said she had not been interviewed by the investigators or her cabinet colleagues.
"I have not seen the report at all. None of the ministers have spoken to me. I was never interviewed or asked anything and for me ... logic says when you do an investigation and people are mentioned in a report, you give them an opportunity ... None of the ministers spoke to me ... so the authority to put my name - I don't know what informed that," she said.
Her reaction to the Department of Public Works report lends credence to suggestions that the investigation was a "whitewash" intended to protect Zuma at the expense of senior officials.
The report says Doidge and Bogopane-Zulu "attended and presided over site meetings and in some instances interacted with contractors involved in the project. This was reflected in the minutes, me-mos generated by officials of DPW and from evidence of three officials and one contractor who raised uneasiness with the involvement of the executive in the project."
Bogopane-Zulu said her conscience was clear and she welcomed the investigation by the Special Investigating Unit, which was gazetted on Friday.
"When the time comes, I will clarify my role. I have done absolutely nothing that is outside of my job. My conscience is very clear and whether it's the SIU, or whoever is recommended, they can go and do their [work]. All that I did in Nkandla is my job," she said.
Speaking from Sri Lanka, where he is South Africa's ambassador, Doidge did not want to comment on the report. "I'm told that the report is recommending that I be investigated by the SIU and the auditor-general, so let them investigate and report," said Doidge.
The public works task team did not interview key people implicated in its report, but public protector Thuli Madonsela - who is running a parallel investigation into Nkandla - has spoken to both Doidge and Bogopane-Zulu.
Madonsela said the release of her final report had been delayed by the unavailability of senior government officials and would take place at the end of next month. "We've been delayed by the security assessment process, which was not concluded as required. We only had one meeting with the officials that were assigned by [the security cluster] ministers. They had promised that we will have a second meeting this week but they didn't show up, neither did they submit the document that they had promised.
"The document was to clarify some of the [security] concerns they had. Because of that there will probably be another one-week delay. We are looking at the last week of January."
Madonsela said she had not been given reasons for the officials' failure to attend the meeting.
"We were not able to send our findings to the complainants and to affected parties ... No, they didn't [give reasons for the no-show]. We saw some of them on TV [during Thursday's press conference on the release of the task team report]," she said.
On Friday, Zuma signed the proclamation allowing the SIU to begin its criminal investigation into allegations of corruption and irregularities regarding the Nkandla upgrades.
SIU head Vas Soni said the investigation would be concluded within four months. He vowed that no one would escape scrutiny if the unit found that they had misused public funds or had benefited improperly from the upgrades.
"So long as we operate within the terms of the proclamation, it doesn't matter who the person is. As far as we are concerned, if we find serious malpractice or maladministration - and obviously corruption by anybody - then they will fall within the ambit of our investigation," Soni said.
Asked if Zuma's possible involvement would also be investigated by the unit, Soni said: "We go by the proclamation, not the person who issued it."
Zuma's possible involvement was raised in the Mail & Guardian newspaper when it reported on a leaked report compiled by Madonsela wherein she is said to have pointed out that Zuma had personally met public works officials working on the site and had introduced them to his personal architect, Minenhle Makhanya.
Makhanya was contracted by public works as overall project manager without the job going to tender and despite the fact that he did not have security clearance. He was paid R16-million for his work.
The public works task team report released on Thursday revealed that seven other companies that worked on Zuma's homestead did not obtain security clearances as required, which posed a security risk.
One company, E Magubane Information Systems, had been denied security clearance twice by the body now known as the State Security Agency.
The terms of reference for the SIU probe state that the investigation should look at whether there was:
Serious maladministration in connection with the department;
Improper or unlawful conduct by departmental officials and employees;
Unlawful appropriation or expenditure of public money;
Intentional or negligent loss of public money; and
Unlawful or improper conduct by any person that has caused serious harm to the interests of the public between January 1 2008 and now.
The SIU has also been granted powers to investigate the procurement and contracting of goods and services for the project. It will also investigate whether any of the service providers were officials or employees of the department, or whether the companies were owned by their spouses, life partners, relatives or friends.
The SIU will also probe any manipulation by officials involving "splitting", whereby work, goods and services are split into items of lesser value to avoid compliance with procurement prescripts.
The investigation is likely to look into the roles of Doidge and Bogopane-Zulu as well as that of senior officials in the department - including former acting directors-general Solly Malebye and Sam Vukela, as well as Makhanya.
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