‘Sex pest’ claims haunt city lead investigator

THE City of Joburg has dismissed as immaterial “sex pest” allegations around its lead investigator probing the disappearance of the Alexandra Renewal Project’s (ARP) R1.3 billion.

Vernon Naidoo, the lead investigator into the ARP saga, which was launched in 2001 to develop Alexandra township, was embroiled in a slew of sexual misconduct charges from 2017 while he was the head of forensics at advisory firm Grant Thornton’s Joburg offices.

Last year two women spoke publicly on Talk Radio 702 of what they described as their harrowing harassment experiences allegedly at the hands of Naidoo.

The Star sent questions to Naidoo, mayor Herman Mashaba’s office and the Group Forensic and Investigation Services (GFIS).

Responding on their behalf, GFIS director Lucky Sindane said the City was aware of these allegations, but that it was “not aware of any cloud hanging over Mr Naidoo’s head as there is no disciplinary case or criminal case outstanding against him”.

“Whatever allegations that were made against Mr Naidoo remain untested by either disciplinary process or a court of law.

“During his tenure at Grant Thornton, Mr Naidoo led a number of forensic assignments for the City and is expected to testify in such matters.

“Grant Thornton had indicated to us as having no objection to him testifying in those matters,” Sindane said.

He added that these allegations had “no bearing with respect to the work and investigations being conducted in respect of the ARP”.

Some of the alleged grotesque acts which Naidoo was accused of was elbow-locking a woman around her neck in a supposed attempt to kiss her after giving her gold jewellery.

Further allegations were that he booked a hotel room in Durban for him and another woman employee, under the alleged false pretence that this was company policy, where Naidoo apparently harassed the colleague on her bed.

Mashaba announced earlier this year that Joburg would conduct its own forensic probe into the alleged missing ARP money.

However, leaked emails from the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements revealed that Naidoo had re-emerged as the City’s lead investigator in the matter.

Describing her “traumatic” experiences to radio host Eusebius McKaiser in March last year, Nerisha Singh, a former director at Grant Thornton, said her ordeal began in August 2017 when Naidoo started sending her “inappropriate text messages”, which culminated in him allegedly buying her jewellery.

“He (Naidoo) said to me: ‘I noticed that you wear a gold necklace which does not match the rest of your jewellery’.

“In that moment, I felt highly uncomfortable because I also realised that he had noticed intimate things about me; that he was looking at me, that he was looking at my neck, my body and it made me highly uncomfortable,” Singh alleged, saying she didn’t return the gift fearing victimisation.

Another woman, who only identified herself as Christine, relayed how Naidoo once put his hands on her leg when they were in a car.

This was after they had returned from an upmarket hotel under an alleged ruse of a client meeting – “which never happened”.

Both women said they laid complaints at Grant Thornton but nothing happened because, according to Singh, Naidoo “absconded” before the hearings ended.

Genea Tehini, spokesperson for BDO SA, which merged with Grant Thornton last year, said Naidoo was never an employee under the new company, so it would not comment.