Question NW2415 to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
06 January 2021 - NW2415
Nxumalo, Mr MN to ask the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure
Whether any progress has been made on talks between her department and its counterparts in the justice and police departments towards creating a system to co-ordinate and share information and tracking disciplinary cases that have resulted in criminal charges against officials; if not, how soon would she be able to provide relevant details in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details on the talks towards creating the specified system?
Reply:
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has been working with various law enforcement agencies including the Hawks, SAPS, SIU, Assets Forfeiture Unit and the NPA. A Task Team consisting of members from these institutions has been established. The main responsibility of the Task Team is to ensure that the Department’s criminal referrals are prosecuted by NPA. The Department has been providing the list of criminal referrals to the Task Team for monitoring purposes. The Department further provides an update on the disciplinary cases to the Task Team for their noting and monitoring. The Task Team is also responsible for ensuring that there is no duplication of investigations. In the past, different organs of state would investigate the same matters without being aware of this. The Task Team sits once every quarter to discuss the progress on criminal referrals. The Task Team has also been reviewing some of the cases that were closed by NPA without the Department being informed of such a decision. The SIU is responsible for coordinating the meetings of the Task Team.