A top government official found to have diverted millions of rands of taxpayers’ money to the ill-fated Nkandla project is at the centre of a new scandal involving a rash of irregular appointments at the department of public works & infrastructure.

The department’s director-general Sam Vukela was slammed in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s 2014 report on the upgrades to former president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence, and later lost his job before being reinstated with R2m in backpay. Now Vukela is at the centre of a new row, with a Public Service Commission (PSC) probe criticising his part in a slew of irregular appointments during a massive hiring spree in his department in 2017 and early 2018. In all, 714 new officials were given jobs...