The Presidency has declined to publicly engage with the former director-general of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Kgathatso Tlhakudi, who has sought guidance on the protected disclosure processes in his drawn out war-of-words with the public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan, over the failed sale of SAA.
This comes as the Parliamentary portfolio committee on public enterprises in March concluded its report and recommended that the matter should be taken up by law-enforcement agencies including the Special Investigative Unit (SIU).
Tlhakudi has accused Gordhan of producing a fraudulent memorandum indicating that he (Tlhakudi) led the evaluation committee that selected Takatso Consortium as the preferred strategic equity partner for SAA.
Last month, Tlhakudi followed up with President Cyril Ramaphosa on his 2022 request for protected disclosure investigation of Gordhan on his conduct in the now defunct transaction.
This was after the director-general in the Presidency, Phindile Baleni, had responded to Tlhakudi, telling him that Ramaphosa would not investigate the allegations against Gordhan, but would instead allow the Speaker of the National Assembly to proceed to investigate and deal with the matter.
In response to enquiries last week, the Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Ramaphosa had not seen the said correspondence and would not, even then, engage with Tlhakudi in the public domain.
“Regardless of me being copied, the President has not seen the correspondence. And when he does see it, he will not have a public engagement with the former DG,” Magwenya said.
In his follow up, Tlhakudi has pointed out that it was now common cause that the Speaker of the National Assembly referred the protected disclosure to the portfolio committee, which has concluded its work and made findings in relation to Gordhan in their report in March.
He said the report denoted the end of the investigation instigated by his protected disclosure, and the committee has gone further and recommended that the Takatso transaction be referred to the SIU for further investigation.
Tlhakudi said he sought guidance from Ramaphosa on the next steps in dealing with his protected disclosure now that Parliament has concluded its work.
The Protected Disclosures Act defines a “protected disclosure” as the disclosure of information by an employee regarding any conduct of an employer or any of its employees, which is criminal or morally opprobrious, and no employee may be victimised or penalised by his or her employer on account of having made a disclosure in accordance with any one of the procedures provided for by the Act.
As a result, Tlhakudi reminded Ramaphosa in his letter that he had lost his job as DG along with his career in the civil service for daring to raise his concern about the Takatso-SAA transaction.
“I am therefore asking the President, considering your commitment in the past to ensuring a professional and capable public service, what will the President be doing to ensure that Minister Gordhan is held accountable for his conduct, which has cost this country and the employees of SA dearly, and that there is some restoration for those affected by his trail of destruction,” he said.
Tlhakudi's disclosures before the portfolio committee and the Competition Tribunal provided the bedrock for scrutiny of the transaction, while it noted with concern that delayed appearances and withholding of critical documents.
The committee had raised its concerns, including delays in submission of documents, conditions of non-disclosure, and insisted that meetings held in-camera had made it difficult for it to test the veracity of the allegations.
“The lack of transparency on the SAA transaction and the lack of documentary evidence further cast aspersions and doubt on whether the SAA transaction was indeed above board,” it said.
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