NPO whistle-blower disappears without a trace
The DA is shocked by media reports of the disappearance of Nomawethu Kunene, who is the Deputy Director of A re Agang a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) providing shelter for abused women.
Her disappearance is alarming as Kunene appeared to become the target of harassment, including a bogus arrest by police in December last year, presumably to put pressure on her to keep quiet about events around the funneling of money from the Gauteng Social Development Department to other destinations.
A re Agang made headlines last year, after being used by the Gauteng Social Development as a “conduit” for payments to other organisations funded by the Department.
This NPO processed one payment of R14 million to Life Esidimeni and without prior warning received a further transfer of over R 10 million. These payments made by the department were a blatant violation of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The details of the transfer were unclear, as it appeared to come from a source other than the Department.
A re Ageng staff suspected that these transfers were irregular and notified the Department to confirm that it had made this transfer. In November 2017, A re Ageng’s bank account was hacked and R5 million transferred to a fuel sale company, which immediately paid a large number of suppliers to obtain a huge quantity of diesel fuel, which was quickly transferred to tankers “for export to a neighbouring country”.