The liar who wants Thuli’s job
Former deputy public protector unmasked after she tried to hide her suspension from National Gambling Board
ONE of the frontrunners to take over from Thuli Madonsela as public protector has been exposed as a liar and a bully, casting a shadow over the process of selecting the person tasked with exposing graft in state institutions.
Advocate Mamiki Goodman, who was deputy public protector under Lawrence Mushwana from 2005 to 2009 and then Madonsela until 2013, has been caught out in a series of lies.
First, she did not disclose her suspension from the National Gambling Board in her application for the position.
In her application submitted on July 8, Goodman ticked “no” when asked whether there were any material issues that could cast doubt on her fitness to hold office.
Then, when confronted about her suspension at Thursday’s short-list interviews in parliament, she lied again, claiming she had only been suspended after her nomination for public protector had been submitted in June.
“I had an altercation in a meeting with my boss. Immediately after my nomination, I received a letter saying that I said my boss is biased, but apologised and we tried to resolve the matter,” she told the committee.
The gambling board has confirmed she was in fact suspended in May, six weeks before her application was submitted.
Goodman was also caught up in another lie when the Sunday Times confronted her about her suspension a week ago. She responded by saying she had never been involved with any irregularities in her 26 years in business, and had never been accused by any employer, including the gambling board, of any tender irregularities.
But documents seen by the Sunday Times show that she was suspended for misconduct towards her colleagues, fighting with her superior about procurement. There were also inexplicable alterations to a bid document for a multimillion-rand tender.
On Friday afternoon Goodman abruptly resigned from the gambling board after more questions around her suspension.
Sources close to the selection committee said this week that Goodman was one of three candidates considered frontrunners to replace Madonsela, whose term comes to an end in October. The others are Western Cape judge Siraj Desai and Advocate Nonkosi Cetywayo, a card-carrying member of the ANC.
Goodman was nominated by two individuals, Dr MC Baloyi and Faith Radebe, who is South Africa’s ambassador to Sweden and a former inspector-general of intelligence.
Corruption Watch’s David Lewis said the fact that Goodman had deputised for two public protectors had been a positive for her.
However, he said, omissions and untruths could make candidates’ lives very difficult. “Judging from the committee’s attitude to all the candidates who omitted to tell pertinent truths or who told untruths on their CVs, [they] will find it very difficult to be accepted as fit and proper,”
You have to be honest. You must have integrity, and misrepresentation of information has very serious implications
he said. “The committee is aware that if they’d recommend people with that on their record to the National Assembly, there’s every chance it will be challenged. For a position like the public protector in particular it would be completely unacceptable.”
National Gambling Board CEO Caroline Kongwa confirmed Goodman’s resignation on Friday afternoon, as well as her suspension two months ago.
“Adv Goodman is no longer employed at the NGB effective August 12 2016 by mutual agreement,” she said.
This week several gambling board employees, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear, said her suspension was related to her alleged bullying of subordinates as well as an altercation with Kongwa over procurement issues.
“The meeting that resulted in her suspension was when she was arguing with the CEO because she wanted to have signing powers in procurement instead of the chief financial officer. When this was not agreed to she then accused the CEO of bias against her in front of staff,” said one employee.
Another source said it was also related to her altering work done on bid documents for the national central electronic monitoring system tender worth hundreds of millions of rands. The ICT tender is related to the monitoring of slot machines.
“She would submit one version for approval and when they present to DTI or other stakeholders she would have a different version to what was approved. So, she was misleading her bosses,” said the employee.
Goodman’s apparent acrimonious relationships with her superiors, stemming from previous controversies during her time as deputy protector, came into sharp focus on Thursday with MPs revisiting very public spats between her and both Mushwana and Madonsela.
These included allegations of sexual harassment against the former and that Madonsela was biased against the ANC, which were found to be without merit.
In response Goodman said: “It is unfortunate that people view the people who are raising the wrongs to be the ones that are wrong.”
Her omissions and lies were labelled as extremely serious by ad hoc committee chairwoman Makhosi Khoza, who said: “As you know, being fit and proper is the primary consideration for this position, which is why the interviews would go into what would be seen as privacy.
“You have to be honest. You must have integrity, and misrepresentation of information has very serious implications. You are not only misleading the members of parliament, you are misleading the very people that you are supposed to protect,” she said.
Yesterday Goodman said “the misunderstanding” between her and the gambling board had been cleared and her suspension withdrawn.
She had resigned from the gambling board because her mandate was fulfilled. “My objective was to pull it from dysfunction to a powerful entity that strengthens regulatory compliance in the country,” she said.
“I have provided parliament with proof of withdrawal of suspension, details of what the misunderstanding was about and they can understand why it is withdrawn.”
Lewis said the office of the public protector was important to South Africa.
“Where would we be if she [Madonsela] hadn’t done the reports on Nkandla, the SABC, and not to mention the hundreds and thousands of people who haven’t got their IDs or can’t get social grants,” he said.
“You know, when you’ve got 61 candidates to vet, to do something any more than just sort of a newspaper scan and looking at their CVs is very, very difficult. I think a lot of people found the short-listing process a little bit haphazard, but I think under the circumstances they’ve done well. I think it’s been incredibly transparent,” he said.
But questions have been raised over the process, and how several candidates came to be short-listed.
Among those tripped up in the
I think a lot of people found the short-listing process a little bit haphazard, but I think under the circumstances they’ve done well
interviews were current deputy public protector Kevin Malunga, whose security clearance was questioned following a leaked letter from the State Security Agency, as well as former asset forfeiture unit head Willie Hofmeyr, who was questioned on his support of the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision to drop corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma.
Another short-listed candidate, Muvhango Lukhaimane, was questioned about an alleged criminal record.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach, who took part in the interview process, warned that the procedures were flawed, and had been mismanaged by Khoza. She said the process “left a lot to be desired”.
“This is after 14 interviews, some of which were over an hour long, were jammed into a single day, with overflow into the early hours of the following morning,” she said.
“The last candidate was called in for his hour-long interview at 1.45 in the morning, after the panel had already spent almost 19 hours in the chamber.”
The committee has until the end of the month to make recommendations to the National Assembly.
Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.sundaytimes.co.za