Staff morale tops new Public Protector’s to-do list

Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane in her new office in Pretoria during her first week in the job, planning the strategic direction for the next seven years. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane in her new office in Pretoria during her first week in the job, planning the strategic direction for the next seven years. Picture: Phill Magakoe

Published Oct 21, 2016

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Pretoria - On Monday when the newly-appointed Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane arrived at work in Hatfield, she noticed the staff morale was low.

She revealed this during her first media briefing since she took over as public protector.

Her first week in office will underline her determination to effect sweeping changes. Boosting staff morale was among her priorities, she said.

Issues affecting staff related to performance management and development systems as well as occupation-specific dispensation, she said. “These relate to the signing of performance agreements and assessing and incentivising performance, as well as senior investigative staff who are discontent about the implementation of occupation-specific dispensation, which has led to a situation where they earn less than their juniors,” she said.

Senior investigative staff members had declared a dispute at the CCMA for recourse, she said.

On the business side of things, she said, her office would not bank on foreign donor funds anymore because of the risks associated with it.

Mkhwebane had on Tuesday told Parliament that her predecessor Thuli Madonsela had secured a donation of $500 000 (R6.9 million) from the US, meant for training of the staff members in investigations.

Prominent among the changes on the cards was the titling of the investigation reports to avoid unnecessary tension between her office and the state.

“If the report is written 'Secure in Comfort', you will have to go deeper to find out what report was that,” she said.

Mkhwebane said writing the report titles in full would assist students and academics to go back to the report to refer to it.

“That decision was taken when we met with management. It was not influenced by how Parliament is viewing it. I am an independent thinker and to me it makes sense to have a title of the report which is easily accessible,” she said.

She was also set on establishing a backlog project team to focus on all cases older than two years.

There was a total backlog of 260 cases older than two years under the good governance and integrity branch, and 47 under administrative justice and service delivery.

A moratorium had been placed on international trips. “We believe that enough exchange of notes with our counterparts elsewhere in the world has been done. I will be getting reports on the lessons we have learnt from all the trips that have been undertaken so we can assess how we have benefited from engagements.”

Mkhwebane reiterated that her office would not release the state capture report pending the court processes.

The report would have been released by Madonsela on her last day of office.

However, Madonsela faced an interdict lodged by President Jacob Zuma and Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des Van Rooyen.

The matter is scheduled to be heard in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria on November 1.

Hiring consultants for investigative work at the public protector would not happen under her watch, she said.

She stated she wanted to invest in building internal capacity to include expertise such as forensic and auditing services required by the office.

Mkhwebane also told the media she had not received a written handover from Madonsela due to her busy schedule on the last week of her tenure.

Regarding whether the perceived hasty investigation into state capture signalled Madonsela’s lack of trust in her to handle it, Mkhwebane said: “The rush of compiling the report and that she didn’t trust me; I won’t comment on that.”

Mkhwebane’s appointment was recommended by all political parties, with the exception of the DA, which raised concerns about her having been a former spy.

There were plans to make the public protector office accessible and visible among the far-flung communities through public awareness programmes, she concluded.

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Pretoria News

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