New SIU boss vows a clean sweep of province
The new boss of the Eastern Cape Special Investigations Unit is raring to get into the thick of fighting corruption.
The SIU has appointed highly experienced forensic investigator Zodwa Xesibe to head its provincial operations, and she moves into her new office in East London on Monday.
She has a background in the Scorpions, the police, the national department of human settlements, and private sector auditing firm Ernst & Young.
In KwaZulu-Natal the SIU has named Ashish Gosai as its new head and other provinces will make their announcements in the coming days.
Born and bred in the Joe Gqabi region, Xesibe acted as SIU programme manager in Gauteng from 2012-2014 and as SIU regional head in KwaZuluNatal from 2014-2017.
As the first permanent head of the SIU in the province in seven years, Xesibe faces the mammoth task of “cleaning” up a province beset by corruption in governance. But she says she is ready for the job.
“It feels good to be in the Eastern Cape, especially contributing to the anti-corruption strategy in the province.
“I accepted this job because I want to serve the country,” Xesibe said.
She said her team’s immediate focus was “to clean the province” and, in the short term, she wants to refer 10 criminal cases under provincial proclamations to the National Prosecuting Authority.
The process for proclamations starts with an internal SIU committee deciding which cases fall under an SIU mandate and deciding which ones to refer to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The president issues a proclamation empowering the SIU to investigate the matter fully and eventually hand the case to the NPA for prosecution.
She plans to dramatically increase the number of cases the unit refers for proclamation. She said the provincial unit had submitted three motivations, at different times, to the department of justice and constitutional development.
One had been proclaimed. “There are new matters being assessed for the current year,” Xesibe said.
In the past three years, the SIU in the province has referred 23 criminal cases.
Its work led to nine arrests by the Hawks; it referred matters with a value of R75m to Sars and four matters worth R240m for civil litigation.
Xesibe said the recovery of the funds benefited the province’s institutions.
Given instances when the provincial government has chosen to investigate itself, we asked Xesibe if the SIU had been undermined and overlooked in serious matters.
“I think that perception is old. We have a very good relationship with the office of the premier,” she said. “We have very good relationships with all the departments, though they are suffering in terms of capacity.
“What they’ve done is come to us and enter into a secondment agreement,” she said.
Such an arrangement had seen the SIU second 10 officials to assist the health department in a probe into dubious medicolegal claims.
Xesibe believes the SIU is a relatively unknown entity in rural areas and does not enjoy a high profile there.
A long-term goal is to build a relationship with the public, she said. “Most people, generally and nationally, don’t know much about the SIU.
“We’ve got plans of reaching out through our stakeholder engagement.”
The EC SIU has seen a string of acting heads since 2014, when Toyo Mnqaba resigned as provincial head and the unit underwent a restructuring process.
Claudia O’Brien, Mike Koya and Wayne du Preez all served in an acting capacity.