![[File Image] Director General Kgabo Mahoai opens BRICS Sherpa meeting held in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SABC-News-Kgabo-Mahoai-Dirco.jpg)
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) director-general Kgabo Mahoai has been fired.
He was found guilty of gross negligence and wasteful and irregular spending in relation to the expenditure of R118 million on a dilapidated building in New York in the US.
The money had been earmarked to purchase land in the US where the offices of South Africa’s New York Consulate and Permanent Mission to the United Nations were supposedly to be built.
Chief of Protocol, Nonceba Losi, will continue as acting director-general.
Earlier in February, the department confirmed that its Mahoai was placed on a precautionary suspension effective from February 11th.
In March, the Democratic Alliance (DA) called for more high-ranking officials from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation to be investigated and brought to book over the New York Pilot Project.
![[File Image] Minister Senzo Mchunu briefing the media on progress of readiness of the public service operations under the COVID-19 level 4 lockdown at GCIS, May 8, 2020.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SABC-News-Senzo-Mchunu.jpg){kind=small}
