PSC is being held hostage

Dear Cape Town

The Democratic Alliance (DA) can today reveal that South Africa’s premier anti-corruption watchdog, the Public Service Commission (PSC), is being held hostage by infighting in the African National Congress (ANC) over the deployment of corrupt cadres.

In addition to currently being embroiled in a corruption scandal engineered by ANC cadre Dovhani Mamphiswana, the PSC – which is supposed to oversee all aspects of ethical and good governance in the public service – has been operating with one hand tied behind its back for the past 16 months as different factions in the ANC battle to gain access to the feeding trough.

To execute on its mandate of ensuring ethical governance, the Constitution requires the PSC to have five national commissioners who are appointed by the President upon recommendation of the National Assembly.

However, one of these five positions has now been vacant for a staggering 16 months as the ANC squabbles over which cadre to appoint to capture one of our most sacred ethics institutions.

The ANC’s initial plan was to appoint disgraced cadre and the disastrous former mayor of Msunduzi, Zanele Hlatshwayo, to the position, which comes with a salary of over R1.5 million per year. If the ANC had succeeded, Hlatshwayo – who allegedly spent millions of Rands in taxpayer funds on her pet projects while she was mayor, including an extravagant trip to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States – would have been in a position to abuse the PSC to protect her fellow cadres from investigations.

Fortunately, the DA fought tooth and nail and eventually defeated the ANC’s evil plan to appoint Hlatshwayo. After a relentless campaign from the DA to oppose Hlatshwayo’s candidature, the ANC twice failed to get the required 201 votes in Parliament to recommend Hlatshwayo.

The ANC’s cadre candidate was already twice rejected by the National Assembly because she is patently unfit for the position.

It is time to accept this democratic outcome and move on to a vote on recommending the second candidate listed for the position: former Deputy Public Protector, Kevin Malunga. Unlike Hlatshwayo, Malunga is an independent, fit and proper person for the post.

In order to free the PSC and our public service from their ANC hostage-takers, the DA has already written to National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise requesting that Parliament schedule an urgent vote to recommend Kevin Malunga to fill the vacancy on the PSC.

We will not rest until President Cyril Ramaphosa fires Mamphiswana, and until the vacancy on the PSC is filled by an independent Commissioner who will not hesitate to go after the corrupt ANC cadres who are looting the state into oblivion.

Regards

Dr Leon Schreiber MP
DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration