The Communications Department is conducting an investigation into allegations of corruption, but would not comment on a report that a top official would be suspended on Monday.

"There is a widespread investigation to look at corruption in the department [relating to] incidences of malpractices," spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said.

This followed complaints raised by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union.

He could not comment on a report in The Times which alleged a director faced 26 disciplinary charges concerning millions of rands in wasted department money.

The director allegedly gave jobs to friends that had not been advertised, improperly secured money to be transferred to her account to upgrade an air ticket from economy to business class, hiring companies for R3-million to do work the department could have done and recommending counter offers for employees who claimed to have found higher paid employment. She was also accused of being selective when instituting disciplinary action against staffers found to be distributing pornography by email.

The newspaper reported that the previous DG, Lyndall Shope Mafole had also signed off a payment to a New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) entity in which her partner was involved, without progress reports or indications of how the money was spent. Shope Mafole joined the African National Congress breakaway group , the Congress of the People last year.

The Sunday Times quoted her as saying: "Obviously, you can't be 100% sure, but I am absolutely certain that... the department of communications, when I left it, would be counted as among those departments where ... you would find the bare minimum of misappropriation or anything, whether you talk about issues of nepotism of anything like that. I am quite sure that I ran a department that is quite clean."