The office of the Gauteng premier has revealed that over 700 foreign nationals are employed in the province’s education department and over 600 in the health department.
This was in response to a question by members of the legislature yesterday.
Tlou Chokoe, a member of the oversight committee in the premier’s office, said the committee awaited the qualifications of the foreign nationals to support ‘justification’ for their employment.
“[This includes] the résumés and qualifications that the employed foreign nationals possess in comparison to many jobless, qualified South Africans.
“In addition, their status as naturalised South African citizens should form part of the requested supplementary information,” Chokoe said.
In addition to those employed by the education and health departments, five foreign nationals are employed in the infrastructure development department, one in the office of the premier, and one in the e-government department.
There are around six in the roads and transport department, three at social development, 19 at agriculture and rural development, and two in the environment department.
Meanwhile, Chokoe also revealed that office of the premier has incurred R590,000 in fruitless and wasteful expenditure and R455 600 in irregular expenditure incurred in 2022/23 financial year. The office of the premier has maintained a clean audit for the 2024/25 financial year.
He said the fruitless expenditure stems from an overpayment in June last year, while the irregular expenditure dates back three to four years, and that the process of recovering the money has been initiated.
“Summons have been issued to recover the overpaid amount, and the investigation by the state legal advising services is ongoing,” he said.
Chokoe added that investigations had also been conducted to understand the causes of the irregular expenditure.
“The office of the premier was able to investigate and utilise relevant clauses to clear this matter, and it has no material impact on the audit findings. Further indication was made that the Gauteng provincial treasury has noted that all due processes as per the irregular expenditure framework were not followed, resulting in the irregular expenditure not being considered by the relevant authority in line with the National Treasury,” Chokoe said.
On lifestyle audits to be conducted on senior management and supply chain management officials, Chokoe said the office acknowledged that the function required significant resources beyond the province’s capacity.
“The office of the premier explained that without the Gauteng provincial government’s partnership with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), conducting lifestyle audits could not have been easy for the government and its departments in obtaining the relevant information.
“It was further indicated that the turnaround time is still low, and even the SIU does not have the capacity to conduct this process.
“An indication was made that the SIU is ready to give its first lifestyle audit report for senior managers and supply chain managers,” he said.
Chokoe said annual financial disclosure as an intervention mechanism is a contributing factor towards the lifestyle audit. He said it was indicated to the committee that the State Security Agency does not have the capacity to assist with top-secret-level security clearance, “hence the delay in the vetting process and the importance of the government’s partnership with the SIU to assist with the lifestyle audit”.
Anton Albert, chairperson of the economic development portfolio, said the department and its entities struggle to meet job creation targets, raising committee concerns over accountability and planning.
“The lack of creating adequate job opportunities remains a salient concern for the committee, as in the previous quarters, [and] similar concerns were raised,” he said.
Albert added that the committee further raised red flags over governance issues.
“The committee noted that the Gauteng liquor board gave an update on the committee of inquiry, and it is expected that a comprehensive implementation plan related to the outcomes of [that committee] on the investigations of allegations of fraud and corruption should be submitted to the committee in line with the government’s accountability requirements,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an earlier version which incorrectly stated that the office of the Gauteng premier incurred R455.6m in irregular expenditure. We apologise for the error.
Sowetan
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