A unit divided: Willie Hofmeyr hopes the SIU will ‘settle down soon’
Photo: Lisa Skinner

Officials at the Special Investigating Unit have alleged that whites and Indians are being favoured over young blacks

A number of junior black officials of Willie Hofmeyr’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) have complained that the unit’s top echelons are white and Indian, while Africans are at the bottom of the pile.

The officials accuse SIU head Hofmeyr of being an absentee manager and of “octopus-like behaviour”, as he occupies different positions in the justice ministry *1.

Hofmeyr also heads the Asset Forfeiture Unit, through which he holds the post of the deputy director of public prosecutions in the National Prosecuting Authority, where he has recently spent most of his time.

The six junior forensic investigators who spoke to the Mail & Guardian, and said they represented others, said they have handed their grievances to the public protector for investigation. The public protector’s office confirmed having received the investigators’ dossier.

Interviewed on Thursday, Hofmeyr did not deny spending time away from the SIU, saying he was involved at a strategic level and had allowed his deputy, Faiek Davids, to hold the reins.

Hofmeyr was in the spotlight recently after he reportedly advised NPA head Mokotedi Mpshe to drop charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma and appeared at last week’s media conference at which Mpshe announced the withdrawal of charges.

He is considered to be a candidate to lead the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, which will replace the Scorpions.

In the dossier of complaints they have compiled the SIU officials said Hofmeyr had ceded power to Davids, whom they accused of hiring whites and Indians as senior managers and recruiting blacks only as trainees.

Davids and Hofmeyr deny racist recruitment practices, but concede that because of its history and origins, the unit still needs to be transformed.

Hofmeyr said when he took over the unit ­ formerly called the Heath Investigating Unit, after Judge Willem Heath who headed it ­ in 2001 its management was 93% white. Now 43% of its managers are black.

He said it was expected that as the SIU expanded there would be “pains of growth”. The organisation has grown from an initial 67 people to its current complement of more than 500.

The employees, who asked to remain anonymous because they said they fear reprisals, showed the M&G an example of a white employee earning more than a black colleague even though they are on the same grade.

“Blacks are treated as tokens by this dynasty to win government contracts and be paraded to Cabinet ministers,” the dossier says.

The officials also alleged nepotism, saying some employees are related as spouses or as father and daughter.

Davids said it is possible for two employees on the same grade to earn different amounts because the SIU takes into account how much people earned before they started working for the unit. He insisted that this has nothing to do with race.

He said that it is a principle of the SIU that relatives cannot be prevented from working for the unit, as long as they do not work in the same department or report to each other.

The employees alleged that Hofmeyr had threatened to resign if staff formed a trade union. Hofmeyr countered that he had encouraged staff members to form a staff association rather than a union, because the involvement of the latter could give rise to risks, given the kind of work the SIU undertakes.

In their dossier the employees also complain that although the unit does not, as a rule, pay out bonuses or a 13th cheque to employees, it paid a R400 000 bonus to Davids last year.

Hofmeyr said the R427 514 payment to Davids was to cover a backdated inflation increment for the past two years. He attributed the uncertainty in the work environment to the rapid growth of the SIU and a restructuring process that is under way. “We hope it will settle down soon,” he said.

With acknowledgements to Adriaan Basson and Mail and Guardian.