Cape Town - The official opposition wants Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele and acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi, to account for the protracted suspension of six provincial heads of departments.
This comes after Gungubele revealed in a written response to parliamentary questions from DA MP Mimmy Gondwe, that R12 million was spent on heads of departments (HODs) while they were sitting idle at home.
The suspended HODs are:
•Northern Cape Sports, Arts and Culture’s R Palm who is on suspension since September 2020, facing fraud charges and paid R2 014 340 to date;
•KwaZulu Natal Public Works’ Gaster Sharpley, who is on precautionary suspension facing allegations of misconduct since November 2020 and received R2 346 238;
•Free State Human Settlement’s N Mokhesi, on precautionary suspension since June 2020 facing charges relating to misconduct and paid R3 412,484;
•Free State’s Sport, Arts, Culture & Recreation SS Mtakati on suspension since May 2021, facing misconduct charges and paid R1 978 533;
•Mpumalanga Human Settlements’ K Masange, suspended in April 2021 facing gross negligence charges and paid R1 308 568; and
•Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison’s BS Nkuna, who was suspended in June 2021 facing serious office charges and paid R1 196 064.
Gondwe said her party will be writing to the public service and administration portfolio chairperson Tyotyo James, requesting that the portfolio committee summon Gungubele and Nxesi to come and account for the broken discipline management system in the public service.
“They must provide firm timelines on when the existing policy on the suspensions of Heads of Departments (HODs) and Director Generals (DGs) will be consolidated to ensure the expeditious and effective management of disciplinary cases, in the public service, in order to avoid an undue burden and costs being placed on the South African taxpayer,” she said.
Gondwe also said the inordinate delays in the finalisation of disciplinary cases was a recurring problem with no discernible action being taken by the ANC government to fix it.
“At a time when service delivery outcomes continue to fail our people, it is extremely unfair and unreasonable for the South African taxpayer to continuously pay the price for the failure, on the part of government departments, to expeditiously finalise and manage disciplinary cases.”
Gondwe also said the presidency should consolidate the existing policy on the suspension of HODs and DGs to ensure that the disciplinary cases are finalised within the requisite 90-day period.
“In order to get more answers on the inordinate delays in finalising the disciplinary cases pertaining to the suspensions, the DA has submitted further Parliamentary questions to the Minister in Presidency,” she added.
Cape Times