The Democratic Alliance (DA) will insist that the Northern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works explain its expenditure of over R3.8 million on precautionary suspensions over the last three years.
According to its latest Annual Report, the department spent over R1.9 million on precautionary suspensions exceeding 120 days in the 2024/2025 financial year alone. It has further indicated that for the last two financial years, only three officials were suspended, raising many questions in relation to the financial and operational impact of delayed investigations.
The situation points to a general lack of internal controls to prudently manage public resources and internal labour relations matters.
A case in point is that of former CFO, Bradley Slingers, who was placed on precautionary suspension in November 2023 and only dismissed in March 2025. The 16-month suspension followed the outcome of internal and external investigations after he was found with large amounts of cash in his vehicle.
Precautionary suspensions have questionable value when they are drawn out over an extended period of time, at the cost of taxpayer money. Worse still is when those on prolonged precautionary suspensions ultimately come back into the system, without ever facing any form of consequence management.
The DA wants a breakdown of the officials who have been, and currently still are, on precautionary suspensions, with reasons for the protracted delays in finalizing these matters and the outcomes of matters that were finalised. We will also request the department to provide us with a plan of how it intends expediting current investigations and concluding on transgressions and subsequent disciplinary processes.
This critical infrastructure department cannot afford to have more projects flatlining due to recurring non-compliance and poor internal labour relations processes.