Muthambi ‘hands out jobs unfaithfully’

Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi is running a bloated private office in which she has employed 40 people allegedly in breach of government policy on the number of staff ministers are allowed to hire.

Well-placed sources in the Department of Public Service and Administration told Business Day that Muthambi had quietly expanded her office during the Christmas recess, employing among others a “protocol officer”, even though such a position did not exist in terms of the ministerial handbook. It was also not part of her department’s organogram.

The minister is no stranger to controversy.

In 2017, she had to defend herself after the Sunday Times revealed that she had flown 30 of her friends and relatives to Cape Town at a cost of R300,000 to attend her budget speech. She has also told Parliament, according to reports, that she saw nothing wrong with hiring family members to work for her.

The ministerial handbook limits the number of staff ministers are allowed to hire to 10.

But those familiar with government affairs said that, depending on their portfolios, ministers were allowed to expand the staff complement of their private offices to about 15 to provide for the employment of political and legal advisers, among others.

Muthambi has also been accused of exiling her directorgeneral, Mashwahle Diphofa, by not allowing him to return from the annual leave he took in October 2017. Diphofa has since been transferred to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, following interventions by the office of President Jacob Zuma and the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Sources at the department, which is regarded as the custo- dian of proper administration in the public service, said that with a bloated structure in her office, Muthambi was transgressing all the policies and public service prescripts at her disposal to ensure that these were not abused by other departments.

They said Muthambi had in December increased her private office staff complement by hiring Cliff Bopape as a “protocol officer”; former member of the Limpopo provincial legislature Jack Matlala as speech writer; and Joe Makhafola as a new spokesman, even though she had hired another spokesman, Pfarelo Maduguma, in May 2017 and he remained in the minister’s office in an undefined role.

Responding through acting director-general William Vukela, Muthambi denied she had a staff complement of 40 but did not offer another figure.

Vukela insisted that all of Muthambi's staff had been hired in line with the stipulations of the ministerial handbook. “As and when vacancies become available due to staff movements, as was the case in the ministry, the ministry has the responsibility to fill those vacancies. As such, the following vacant positions were filled: Mr Matlala was appointed as the director: Parliament liaison and research analysis; Mr Bopape as ministerial receptionist; and Mr Makhafola as director: cabinet and parliamentary liaison officer. These posts are not in the private office as alleged.”

Sources said Muthambi’s modus operandi was to “give her people” government titles where they performed functions outside those positions.

“There’s a deputy-director whose job is to only take pictures at events that the minister attends. There’s also a guy who’s responsible for social media in the minister’s office. We don't know what a protocol officer does because other minister don’t have that,” said one source.

In 2017, Muthambi suspended the department’s chief financial officer Masilo Makhura and replaced him with Zweli Momeka, who was introduced to staff as the department’s “financial overseer”.

Muthambi was also said to have been unhappy when she discovered that Diphofa had been to his office recently and her staff reprimanded other officials for allowing their directorgeneral access to the building.

Vukela did not respond to specific questions about this, only saying Diphofa was “still on leave”, which he took in 2017 following differences between him and Muthambi on the running of the department.

Diphofa’s leave was due to end on November 17, but he continued to sit at home with full pay until he was moved to the co-operative governance department. Diphofa declined to comment, saying only that the PSC was still in the process of resolving his impasse with Muthambi in consultation with the Presidency.