Staff emails monitored by SIU

3 Oct 2011

The Special Investigating Unit spent thousands of rands on buying computer software that could be used to spy on its employees and even hid the purchase of the software from staff members so they would not know that their computer activity was being tracked.

The details emerge from sacked senior manager Miseria Nyathi who claims that SIU head Willie Hofmeyr had concealed the transaction from her and told her, instead, that he had bought 800 user licences for software.

She claims the purpose of the spyware program was to audit her laptop in order to garner evidence that she had drafted a Nehawu document. She was fired by the SIU and despite an order to reinstate her granted by the Labour Court, the SIU has yet to recall her.

The Mercury reports that her battle with the SIU began when she was accused of writing a letter on a Nehawu letterhead, which accused Hofmeyr of distorting facts to divide members of the unit. She is also accused of claiming R60 000 in special allowances for overtime over a period of four months.

The name of the software has not been mentioned but it was apparently designed to run on the operating system that the SIU has deployed and was the only recommended product for it.

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