The South African Home Affairs minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has revealed that a criminal case has been opened against Kudakwashe Mpofu, a Zimbabwean national who was employed as the Chief Financial Officer of the North West Government entity.
Motsoaledi said Kudakwashe Mpofu, the suspended CFO of North West Development Corporation, had been informed his permit was illegal as far back as June 23 2023.
“We can confirm the permanent residence permit number appearing on Mr Mpofu’s document does not exist in our systems. We can further confirm that the control number appearing on Mr Mpofu’s purported document was not issued by the department to him but rather it was legitimately issued to somebody else. As to how Mr Mpofu came across that control number, we do not know,” Motsoaledi said.
It is a matter of national embarrassment that Mr Mpofu was able to obtain employment as the CFO at the North West department of economic development handling public funds. After ascertaining these facts about Mpofu, I immediately phoned the acting premier of North West, Nono Maloyi, and he told me that Mr Mpofu has already been suspended,” Motsoaledi said.
Motsoaledi questioned why home affairs officials who had discovered the fraud had not opened a police case. He also questioned why the human resources division in the North West department of economic development had not done a due diligence to verify Mpofu’s documentation.