A LEADER of a special investigations unit accepted a job offering her more than R1 million a year from an organisation she was assigned to investigate.

Now Vanessa Somiah, former leader of the special investigations unit (SIU) probing public housing corruption, stands accused of covering up evidence implicating the National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) of irregularities before taking a cushy job with the council.

The NHBRC was established under the Housing Consumer Protection Measures Act, mainly to protect the interest of housing consumers and to regulate the home building industry.

The SIU's overall investigation into public housing corruption has so far led to the recovery of R55million. Sources said the SIU was confident the probe had not been compromised by Somiah's alleged misconduct.

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale yesterday launched a scathing attack on Somiah, accusing her of burying charges against the NHBRC.

An outraged Sexwale said the NHBRC offered a salary of more than R1million a year - nearly double her pay at the SIU - to quit the corruption busting unit, in a move he described as "bribery".

Sexwale said Somiah had since been suspended from the NHBRC post, which was created without the requisite ministerial approval.

Somiah oversaw the SIU's four-year-old probe into corruption in public housing and was personally tasked with investigating corruption allegations within the NHBRC at the request of the ministry.

At the same time, she was secretly offered or applied for a senior post in the NHBRC, allegedly in collusion with its chief executive Sipho Mashinini, who was one of the people under investigation, Sexwale said.

"It came to light that, at the same time as she was in the process of working on the report for the department of Human Settlements, she was ostensibly negotiating with, and subsequently became employed by the NHBRC at almost twice the salary she was earning at the SIU.

"Within weeks of her employment, the NHBRC while conducting some kind of disciplinary action against its employees, listed Ms Vanessa Somiah as a witness against some of them who were whistle blowers while she was at the SIU."

He said Mashinini had been given a final written warning and would be the subject of further investigations.

"The council has been further advised that investigations around Mr Mashinini ought not to be conducted while he is in office."

Sexwale said he was in favour of all possible steps being taken against those involved in covering up corruption at the NHBRC, including criminal charges.

Sexale has ordered a new probe into NHBRC, saying that the corruption report he had received earlier was clearly a whitewash riddled with discrepancies.

SIU head Willie Hofmeyr said this should take two to three months.

Hofmeyr said the affair was deeply unpleasant for the SIU and had been uncovered thanks to information received from the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu).

He said Nehawu members blew the whistle before Easter, complaining that they had given Somiah information against Mashinini which she had failed to properly investigate.

Somiah left the SIU at the end of April. "By that stage she had resigned, but she did not tell us who her new employer was," he said.