scene. ‘The prepayments matter relating to material suppliers were
investigated by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU),’ he said in a
written response.
Considering Open Water’s alleged meddling, one can’t help but
wonder how thorough the SIU report was.
The SIU also told me that it had referred three matters to the National
Prosecuting Authority for criminal prosecution. The NPA ‘in turn
referred [the three cases] to the Hawks for finalisation’. But that was
more than three years ago. It appears as if these cases were added to
the mountain of investigations that ground to a halt once the Hawks
got hold of them during Zuma’s years in power.
Open Water started its investigation on 19 June 2012 and submitted a
preliminary report a mere ten days later. It was on the basis of this
report that the department suspended and later dismissed eleven
officials.^11
But Open Water’s methodology apparently left much to be desired.
My source within the group of axed officials claimed that the
investigators did not even bother to interview any of the alleged
culprits. ‘The Open Water guys came to the department, took our
gadgets [computers and other electronic equipment] and then told us to
leave the premises,’ said the former official. ‘They never spoke to us to
collect our side of the story.’
The firm and some of its key executives have been accused of
employing similar tactics elsewhere. A Sunday Independent report
from 2017 detailed how an Open Water report had implicated a local
logistics company in a supposedly dodgy deal with South African
Airways Technical. It had then emerged that Open Water had not
interviewed the implicated company’s managing director before it
nora
(Nora)
#1