Just months after a forensic investigation found Nontobeko Mafu to be incompetent and insubordinate, recommending she be charged with financial misconduct for several disastrous projects that wasted millions in public money, her suspension was lifted and she was promoted to head up the department of military veterans.
Today Mafu is acting director-general at the department, which falls under the defence department, while the report languishes in File 13.
The Sunday Times has seen a leaked copy of the report, which outlines how the politically connected official was allowed to recklessly bulldoze her way around procurement processes and ignore critical supply chain management requirements.
The investigation also raises questions into how Mafu was appointed as deputy DG of empowerment and stakeholder management (ESM) in 2016. At the time, she was employed at the Eastern Cape legislature as a senior manager in the office of the deputy speaker. She did not make the initial shortlist of four applicants. After a memo was sent to then defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, then deputy minister Kebby Maphatsoe approved it.
But three months later, a new shortlist inexplicably emerged, with Mafu’s name on it. The members of the selection board had been completely reconfigured to comprise Mapisa-Nqakula, then social development minister Bathabile Dlamini, Maphatsoe and then state security DG Sonto Kudjoe, who chose Mafu as the successful candidate.
Mafu was married to former Eastern Cape MK commander Dumisani Mafu, a key player in the ANC who was granted amnesty by the Truth Commission for several fatal attacks. He died from a heart attack in July 2016, the same year his widow was appointed in her deputy director-general post.
The report details two military veteran projects in which Mafu incurred millions in wasteful expenditure and for which, the report says, she should be charged with financial misconduct.
One was a sewing project in 2021 to provide skills to veterans and their families in which costs ballooned from R5.4m to R10.8m. The six-month course for 74 students included tuition, lunch, daily travel and a R3,500 monthly stipend for each student, with a total cost of R5.4m. Subsequently, meals and accommodation were added, bringing costs to R9.7m.
[Mafu] would abscond and not prepare for meetings, fail to approve and sign off on documents in time and not appoint anyone to act on her behalf when she is not at her office. She failed to provide budgetary reports [and] weekly and monthly plans ... She failed to carry out instructions from the DG within her area of responsibility
— Report commissioned by former DG Irene Mpolweni
A further R1.1m was added to the bill following a Covid-19 outbreak at the University of Pretoria, where they were staying, prompting their relocation to a Park Lodge hotel.
The report found that the tuition cost per person was above the threshold of R40,000. There was no signed service level agreement in place and the training was approved without getting three quotes, as required by the skills funding policy. Also, the training college involved was paid before the training had even started.
Another project for which Mafu came under fire was providing temporary accommodation to veterans. In 2020 a group of 27 who had been allocated housing at an MK development, Rama City, complained of violence and threats. One veteran’s house was vandalised by a mob.
They demanded emergency temporary accommodation. The estimated cost for the 25 families was put at “R100 000 per family for a month”. Despite the department having no mandate to provide emergency accommodation, Mafu allegedly signed off on the request. The report found that the department paid R7.9m for accommodation and meals.
It said when new acting chief director Lindiwe Sothondoshe was appointed in July 2021, she “took an initiative and tasked [an official] to conduct an inspection at Rama City and to verify that the veterans who were at the guesthouses, were allocated houses at Rama City.
“He found that not all the veterans at the guesthouses had been staying at Rama City. He found that one veteran had not been allocated a house, but had invaded it; three veterans had not been allocated houses, six houses were occupied by veterans' family members; and that only one house had been vandalised, the other had ‘no issues’.
It found that the R7.9m payments were irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, “as it was made in vain, and would have been avoided had reasonable care been taken. Mafu failed to ensure that the assets of the department are safeguarded, or liabilities managed, within her area of responsibility”.
The report highlighted general flouting of the Public Finance Management Act in the department by several senior officials. It further highlighted inaccuracies in Mafu’s division that led to incorrect reporting in audit reports, lack of reporting to the accounting officer on critical outstanding issues, disregard for relevant policies and the legal framework applicable to the functioning of ESM.
Insubordination and lack of professional conduct were also mentioned. The investigation looked into Mafu’s qualifications, but despite finding that she did not have a matric certificate, it did not recommend any action. Mafu claimed she obtained the equivalent of matric when she was living in Tanzania in exile.
The investigation was commissioned by former DG Irene Mpolweni, when she joined the department in June 2021. Mpolweni said Mafu “would abscond and not prepare for meetings, fail to approve and sign off on documents in time and not appoint anyone to act on her behalf when she is not at her office. She failed to provide budgetary reports, performance issues of the ESM branch, weekly and monthly plans, accounting for people who have been trained, her performance agreement and strategies for the ESM. She failed to carry out instructions from the DG within her area of responsibility.”
Mpolweni said Mafu’s ESM branch had spent 98% of its budget with “minimal performance and service delivery”. She suspended Mafu in 2021.
Two years later, in March 2023, Mpolweni herself was suspended. No reason was given. She resigned in February 2024. Her position was briefly filled — on an acting basis — by former SA Navy chief retired Vice-Adm Mosiwa Hlongwane. He was replaced around December 2023 by Mafu, with no explanation provided.
Defence minister Angie Motshekga’s spokesperson Onicca Moloi said the minister would only be able to comment on Tuesday, as she had to liaise with different departments to get clarity.
Mafu did not respond to calls or questions WhatsApped to her registered cell number.
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