State Security official defends 'unlawful' vetting process at SAA
An evaluator at the State Security Agency has defended a vetting process the agency conducted in 2015 at the South African Airways under the leadership of Dudu Myeni.
Nokunqoba Dlamini appeared before the commission of inquiry into state capture Tuesday.
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She was the project manager of the processes at the time.
According to the evidence leader, Advocate Kate Hofmeyr, the vetting process was invasive, unnecessary and unlawful.
A total of 118 individuals at the airline, including supporting staff, management and executive were on the list to be vetted although some of them either resigned or refused to cooperate.
Dlamini: "The main goal was to ensure corruption is reduced there."
The commission’s chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo: "I guess all the millions of state employees that we in the country are supposed to be security vetted and if they have all been vetted and despite that, we have the high levels of corruption we have, then this vetting does not reduce corruption?"
Dlamini: “We have not vetted all of them chairperson, because of the magnitude of the work.“
Hofmeyr described the questions that were asked during the vetting process as invasive.
Some of them included questions related to the personality of spouses, whether family members had ever abused drugs or any substances and whether officials believed it was okay to have more than one partner at a time.
In previous testimonies, former SAA executives testified that Myeni used the vetting process to get rid of them.
Dlamini maintained that the SSA's process was above board and the vetting process was necessary.