Didiza tells Steenhuisen to watch his words

Former minister of agriculture Thoko Didiza has called out her successor, John Steenhuisen, for statements he made at the weekend in relation to “exposing” misconduct in the department.

Didiza said the impropriety Steenhuisen allegedly “uncovered” was dealt with during her time in the department and referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for investigation by the state-owned animal vaccine manufacturing entity involved.

She said it was inappropriate for Steenhuisen to make definitive statements while enforcement agencies were conducting investigations, creating an impression that nothing was done to address the challenges by the previous administration.

Didiza was responding to a weekend report that funds given to the previous administration meant to revamp a vaccine facility were allegedly unaccounted for.

City Press reported on Sunday that in his second month in the position, Steenhuisen had uncovered a scandal in which R500m allocated to Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) allegedly could not be accounted for.

On Monday, Didiza’s office said she had written to Steenhuisen to clarify how during her tenure the matter was dealt with by the OBP board and management as well as the portfolio committee on agriculture, land reform and rural development.

Didiza, who is speaker in the National Assembly, said details of the matter could be found in the OBP annual reports, including the audit report.

“A forensic report on the utilisation of some of the funds was done, and it enabled OBP to take some of the concerns of subcontracting to the SIU,” she said through her spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo.

Didiza urged Steenhuisen to be circumspect about the matters he communicated to the media “as these will have unintended and disastrous consequences for the department and its entities”.

“It is clear that despite former minister Didiza’s efforts to help minister Steenhuisen with understanding the intricacies of the department and its entities during the handover process, this remains inadequate.

“To this end, former minister Didiza remains available to assist minister Steenhuisen with this and other matters,” said Ngcobo.

City Press reported that while talking about his ministry’s plans to help the economy recover and stabilise the government of national unity (GNU), Steenhuisen said, “The previous administration was given a grant from government to revamp a facility, a very important one because it produces many of the vaccines needed for animal health in the country.

“The large amount went missing and is unaccounted for. I intend to reintroduce a forensic audit to get to the bottom of where that money went and how it was spent.”

City Press quoted Steenhuisen as saying that alleged corruption had been reported to the director-general of the department, and a process was under way to address it.

He said: “The auditor-general has flagged some issues around management, value for money and record-keeping. I’ll be reviewing the auditor-general’s report and using it as a basis to ensure controls are put in place to address issues around fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as well as poor record-keeping. I look forward to working with the [auditor-general’s] office.

“We achieved an unqualified audit this term, and we would like to improve on that.”

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