Nxele’s prisons case a test of resolve
• KwaZulu-Natal prisons boss faces several accusations after SIU probe
KwaZulu-Natal prisons head Mnikelwa Nxele is at the centre of a number of accusations of tender-rigging, moneylaundering and possible corruption contained in a Special Investigating Unit probe. Yet the correctional services department has spent more than a year struggling to ensure he faces a lawful disciplinary inquiry into the allegations against him.
KwaZulu-Natal prisons head Mnikelwa Nxele is at the centre of a number of accusations of tender-rigging, money laundering and possible corruption after a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe. Yet the department of correctional services has spent more than a year struggling to ensure that he faces a lawful disciplinary inquiry.
Nxele, a colourful personality who has dominated headlines for years, was fired in 2019 after an independent inquiry found him guilty of gross insubordination. But newly appointed justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola took the unusual decision to reverse Nxele’s dismissal, apparently on the basis of a report by the Public Service Commission.
The department’s 2019 decisions to fire and reinstate Nxele, as well as his campaign against the disciplinary process subsequently launched against him based on the SIU investigation into prison tender irregularities, raises serious questions about the department’s ability to take action against officials implicated in wrongdoing.
Nxele has successfully challenged the legality of his suspension — a victory the department is fighting to appeal against.
The Financial Intelligence Centre and the SIU have raised red flags over Nxele’s R16m deposits and R13m withdrawals from local casinos, and his alleged failure to declare three properties— valued at R3.5m that he allegedly paid for in cash over 18 months — to the department.
The SIU also found Nxele had not declared the multimillionrand income he had received through his gambling activities. According to the SIU, “the frequency of this benefit may well be tantamount to a remunerative income”.
Nxele insists these issues are unrelated to what the SIU was mandated to investigate.
The department’s own investigation reveals that Nxele did not respond to opportunities for him to answer to the allegations against him and did not pitch up for a prearranged interview.
It appears that the department is now trying to tackle the impression that it cannot stamp out corruption within its ranks, and doing so as a matter of urgency. And it is willing to use Nxele’s case as an example.
In his address to parliament on Monday, Lamola conceded that the department of correctional services had “been subject to several high-profile investigations over maladministration and corruption” which had “harmed its image”.
“We are, therefore, committed to reverse this by following through on relevant SIU resolutions and ensuring that consequence management is implemented throughout the system,” Lamola said.
Echoing the words of national director of public prosecutions Shamila Batohi when she was first appointed, Lamola added: “Impunity breaks down public trust and we are clear in our resolve that an ethical state is founded on consequence management.”
In this light, the legal saga about the department’s unresolved case against Nxele and the fact that he has been suspended on full pay for more than a year is, at the least, embarrassing for Lamola.
At the time of his firing in 2019, the department of correctional services was quick to stress that Nxele had not been axed over any of the damaging claims made against him by former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi, who testified that senior prisons official had received monthly bribes of R57,000 from the corruption-accused facilities management company.
Agrizzi told the commission of inquiry into state capture chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo that he had personally handed R57,000 to Nxele at the InterContinental hotel at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. “He said he was unhappy with the amount that was paid to him and that he would convey this dissatisfaction to [recently deceased Bosasa CEO] Gavin Watson,” Agrizzi said.
While Nxele has publicly stated that he wished to crossexamine Agrizzi about these claims, Business Day was unable to independently confirm that he had applied to do so.
Just months after Nxele was reinstated by Lamola and returned to his position as KwaZulu-Natal correctional services commissioner, he was suspended again, this time over the allegations made against him in the SIU’s investigation of his department’s procurement of “perishable provisions, food, toiletries, catering, marquee fire and coal”.
IMPUNITY BREAKS DOWN PUBLIC TRUST AND WE ARE CLEAR IN OUR RESOLVE THAT AN ETHICAL STATE IS FOUNDED ON CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT
The 20 multimillion-rand tenders under investigation were awarded between 2012 and 2018. While he insists his cases are driven by his legitimate demand for a fair and equitable inquiry process, they have also allowed him to avoid responding to the accusations. That is damaging to both him and the department itself.
If findings and recommendations made by the SIU can be left indefinitely unresolved because of legally questionable disciplinary processes, there is no hope that Nxele will ever provide his side of the story on the allegations made against him. Nor can he be held accountable, if he fails to adequately explain what he did and why he did it.
That is a sure-fire recipe for impunity.