NELSPRUIT – The former provincial MEC for sport and recreation has again been found in breach of the parliamentary ethics code by the Public Protector (PP). Ms Dina Pule served as MEC in Mpumalanga before being appointed minister of communications.
The PP’s findings made public this week, related to actions taken by Pule during her tenure as minister. She was fired as such by the president Mr Jacob Zuma last year, over allegations her concerning maladministration, corruption and a potential conflict of interest related to an ICT Indaba and her romantic partner, Mr Phosane Mngqibisa.
At the time, the PP found that Pule violated the executive ethics code by wilfully misleading parliament and recommended that she consider leaving parliament. Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members interests had also found that Pule caused improper benefits to be afforded to Mngqibisa.
This week, the PP released her report of an investigation into the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) management board and directors. The report titled “When governance and ethics fail” followed an investigation into allegations relating to corporate governance failure at the public broadcaster.
It dealt mainly with the irregular appointment of the corporation’s acting chief operations officer Mr Hlaudi Motsoeneng by the board, but included allegations that Pule had irregularly appointed the chief financial officer (CFO), Ms Gugu Duda.
Once again Mngqibisa’s name came up. The PP found that Ms Gugu Duda was irregularly appointed in February 2012 as the CFO through the interference of the Department of Communication. Duda had not applied for the position. A recommendation to appoint Mr Msulwa Daca had already been made by the SABC board to the former minister. Pule rejected the recommendation.
“Although I could not find conclusive evidence that Pule personally ordered that Duda’s CV to be handed over to the SABC and that the board interview her against the law as alleged, there is sufficient evidence that suggests an invisible hand from her direction and that of Mngqibisa, to which we can legitimately attribute this gross irregularity,” she said in her report.
Pule speedily approved the appointment, making her conduct as minister of communications improper and constituting maladministration. “Her conduct accordingly constitutes a violation of the executive ethics code and amounts to abuse of power” regarding the allegation that the department and minister unduly interfered in the affairs of the SABC, giving unlawful orders to the board and staff.
Duda has since been suspended, while a group of opposition parties calling itself Collective for Democracy, laid criminal charges against Motsoeneng on Wednesday.
