Africa-Press – South-Africa. Thulas Nxesi, acting minister of public service and administration, has granted his special adviser Dr Alex Mahapa a 60-day leave of absence to allow him to respond to serious allegations against him.
The granting of the special leave comes after recent media allegations that Mahapa acted in conflict of interest during his tenure as deputy director-general in the Department of Military Veterans in the division of Socio-economic Support 2016.
Nxesi’s spokesperson Sabelo Mali confirmed this in a statement, adding that the minister had granted the leave so Mahapa could “respond to the allegations against him and clear his name”.
In correspondence seen by News24, Nxesi responded to a letter from Mahapa dated 17 August 2022, saying: “You brought to my attention a media article wherein you were accused of allegedly acting in conflict of interest to either enrich yourself or prejudice the state, in 2016 during your employment as deputy director-general in the Department of Defence and Military Veterans.”
He adds that although Mahapa assured him that the allegations leveled against him “were baseless and devoid of any truth”, the government needed to hold a “zero tolerance approach towards financial impropriety”.
“In my current political oversight of the DPSA as its acting political head, I view allegations levelled against you in a serious light regardless of the fact that activities giving rise to the alleged misconduct happened before I employed you as my special adviser,” said Nxesi.
Mahapa had told Nxesi that the reason for his request for special leave was to enable him to deal with the allegations and to clear his name.
While Nxesi highlighted in his response that he had to presume Mahapa innocent until proven guilty, he stressed that it was his “considered opinion that the most rational and prudent way to deal with this situation is by allowing you time and space to attend to the allegations levelled against you without the normal burden of providing me with the support of a fulltime special adviser”.
He wrote:
The minister said he reserved his right to review Mahapa’s leave conditions and employment status if Mahapa failed to clear his name to Nxesi’s satisfaction at the end of the 60 days.
Since Mahapa has not been suspended, he has unrestricted access to his office and use of the department’s information communication technology and cellphone.
Mahapa was implicated by investigative journalism unit amaBhungane as having played a hand in the scandal-ridden state-owned asset manager, the PIC’s contentious investment in 1000ha of empty land worth in excess of R600 million.
The piece of land under contention is located on the N12 highway between Klerksdorp and Stilfontein.
Mahapa’s company Alfonso Business Enterprise was, according to amaBhungane, allegedly approached by a fixer, retired military veteran Colonel Papi Kubu through his firm PKX Capital, to approach the PIC for funding.
In terms of two written agreements quoted by amaBhungane, Alfonso would earn a R20-million “facilitation” fee or as much as R50-million if it could get the PIC to provide the full asking price of R850-million for 100% ownership. This was later scaled down to R680-million for a 60% share.
For his part in the contentious investment, amaBhungane claimed that Mahapa would, through a company called Lamahapa Investment Holdings, get paid R20-million.
Mahapa has denied any wrongdoing.
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