The department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC) is to launch a full-blown investigation next week into whistle-blower allegations of maladministration at the SA Bureau of Standards (SABS), the statutory body responsible for product standardisation and quality.
This follows an internal departmental review of responses given by the SABS to the allegations, which include maladministration, governance failures, recruitment irregularities and disciplinary matters.
DA spokesperson on trade, industry & competition Toby Chance raised the alarm in public at what he called the “escalating governance crisis and repeated cybersecurity breaches” at the bureau.
The department’s deputy director-general, Nontombi Matomela, told parliament’s trade, industry & competition committee at a meeting on Tuesday that the service provider to conduct the investigation had not yet been selected, but would be chosen from the panel used by the department.
The investigation will begin in early February.
There is a long history of mismanagement at the SABS, which was under administration for about five years until December 2022.
In a series of emails to the department since August 2024, whistle-blowers have claimed the disarray resulted in the partial suspension of accreditation by the SA National Accreditation System (Sanas) for a cement scheme on August 8.
This means that the SABS cannot issue permits bearing the Sanas logo for new clients, the addition of scope or new cement products and renewals.
Acting CEO Lizo Makele told MPs the SABS was initially given three months to put in place remedial action to deal with the cement suspension. However, Sanas had granted an extension until April because of the serious ransomware attack the organisation suffered in November that crippled its IT systems and core operations and affected its ability to deliver essential services.
The committee meeting was attended by DTIC minister Parks Tau and deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, who acknowledged there had been delays on the part of the department in processing the allegations, which were taken seriously.
Tau said the department had sent questions about the allegations to the SABS and received replies, and on the basis of those (and on the recommendation of the department’s internal audit) decided there needed to be a “deep dive” into the allegations.
He stressed the need for the SABS board and governance to be strengthened after a spate of resignations, another one on Monday. The appointment of a permanent CEO also needed to be finalised by a fully constituted board. The minister said a new board would be finalised in the next few weeks.
Acting SABS chair Ron Josias told MPs the board fully supported the investigation. He said the board had made a temporary arrangement in the absence of a permanent CEO of rotating the current executives in the position of CEO until a permanent appointment was made. He acknowledged that the SABS faced challenges, including testing and accreditation, which were being attended to by the board.
Makele denied any recruitment irregularities, saying that recruitment was conducted by selection panels so no individual executive or manager could appoint candidates who do not meet the requirements of the job.
He said that in the recent past the board had received investigation reports of alleged serious misconduct by employees, some of whom had been placed on precautionary suspension pending the finalisation of investigations and disciplinary hearings.
He gave the assurance that steps were under way to restore systems destroyed by the ransomware attack.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Chance said the operational failures of the SABS were mounting, pointing to poor leadership, lack of investment, controls and accountability.
“All the disciplinaries and suspensions involve middle management and staff in the engine room who know what’s really going on,” he said. “It is critical that no more suspensions or disciplinaries be allowed until the investigation is completed.”
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