By Greg Arde and Sibusiso Ngalwa
Former uMsunduzi municipal manager Thabane Zulu, who made headlines when police found a large sum of cash in his crashed car three years ago, has been appointed director-general of the Department of Human Settlements.
The cabinet announced the appointment on Thursday.
The move has drawn criticism because of Zulu's controversial history.
Yesterday the IFP's Velaphi Ndlovu said the ANC's policy of cadre deployment led to government inefficiency. "The cadres serve the party, not the people of South Africa," he said.
Zulu rebutted this, saying he would serve all South Africans equally.
Zulu, 43, was one of Robben Island's youngest prisoners when he was jailed at the age of 19. He served time with Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale.
Yesterday he said that while he was friends with Sexwale his appointment had followed "the normal recruitment process".
Zulu shot to prominence when he was appointed uMsunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) municipal manager in 2004. He did not last long, clashing with ANC mayor Zanele Hlatshwayo.
In August 2006 the Scorpions raided the Pietermaritzburg municipality, including Zulu's office, searching for evidence of fraud, theft and corruption.
Zulu was not among the officials who were later prosecuted. "My slate is clean... there is no doubt. The country needs public servants with passion and I am one of those," he said.
By 2007 Zulu was director-general of KwaZulu-Natal's Department of Social Welfare. That year he crashed his Range Rover in Pietermaritzburg while trying to escape a suspicious car with blue lights that was tailing him, according to his lawyer, Naren Sangham.
When police arrived, they found a badly injured Zulu and a sum of cash in the boot. The amount was never disclosed, but previous reports put it at R47 000.
Sangham said it was not state money and there was nothing sinister or illegitimate about it. Zulu refused to discuss the issue. He left the provincial government soon afterwards.
Yesterday he said: "That money was mine. It wasn't stolen or received irregularly. I don't have to account for it."
Last year Zulu's ex-wife, Pamela Bosman-Zulu - a former chief financial officer for the KZN Education Department - was arrested and charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering.