Johannesburg - Maxwell Sirenya joins a long list of directors-general who have clashed with their political principals.
One of the more recent cases is that of former labour director-general Nkosinathi Nhleko who was unceremoniously unseated, following a breakdown between him and Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant.
Nhleko not only fell out with his former boss, he later re-emerged as the new police minister, a cabinet post considered more senior than that of Oliphant’s. Oliphant reportedly wrote a letter “instructing” Nhleko to withdraw a forensic investigation into the Compensation Fund, and the suspension of its head. The ensuing exchanges led to an ugly fallout between the two.
Former communications director-general Rosy Sekese’s fallout with the disgraced previous minister, Dina Pule, also ended up in court. Pule had accused Sekese of misleading Parliament in 2013.
At some point, Sekese wrote a letter to the standing committee on appropriations, apologising for not attending, saying she had been stripped of her powers by Pule.
Sekese was later placed on special leave, after MPs complained that she’d lied to them by claiming that a performance contract between herself and Pule had been signed, when no such agreement between the two even existed.
Sekese returned to office after a labour court ruled in her favour.
In 2013, the current Sars commissioner Tom Moyane was forced into early retirement after his contract was cut short by then Correctional Services Minister Sbu Ndebele. Not too long after taking office as the new minister of arts and culture, Nathi Mthethwa announced the suspension of his director-general, Sibusiso Xaba, pending a forensic investigation into irregular expenditure and performance.
Former director-general of basic education, Bobby Soobrayan, whom the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) had vowed to dump, was eventually “redeployed”.