Minister of panic and hell

Listening to deputy director-general of the Government Communication and Information System Phumla Williams testifying at the state capture commission on Monday struck a chord.

Hearing how she was bullied by former communications minister Faith Muthambi reminded me of a similar incident in 2017.

I was the board chairman of a water utility based in the Western Cape, owned by the department of water & sanitation. The board was empowered by law to recruit and employ the company’s CEO. But the then minister would hear none of it. When the board fired its CEO for gross misconduct, the minister jumped the gun and seconded her department’s “good-for-nothing” CFO to act (indefinitely) as the CEO of the entity without the board’s consent.

When the board objected, she bullied us into submission. For two years we were investigated and blackmailed in the hope we would resign.

When we refused to leave, the not-so honourable minister used a questionable forensic investigation to terminate the board. But not before we reported the matter to parliament’s portfolio committee, which did very little except to warn the minister she was breaking the law.

After the warning, the minister abruptly withdrew the woman and took her back to the department. It was hell on Earth.

I empathise with Williams. What she went through, I would not wish upon anyone. I know the stress, the nightmares and panic attacks she testified about. Now, the minister who made life hell for me is doing everything under the sun to avoid accounting to the public protector.

Mpumelelo Ncwadi Via e-mail