Boosting morale a priority – protector
Also no foreign funds, travel or consultants and simple report titles
ON MONDAY, when the new public protector, advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, arrived at work in Hatfield, Pretoria, she noticed morale was low.
At her first media briefing, she talked about her first week in office and her determination to effect sweeping changes. Boosting morale was among her priorities.
Issues affecting staff related to the performance-management and development system as well as the occupation-specific dispensation, she said.
“These relate to the signing of performance agreements and assessing and incentivising performance. Senior investigative staff are discontent about the implementation of the occupation-specific dispensation, which has led to a situation where they earn less than their juniors,” she said.
She said senior investigative staff had declared a dispute at the CCMA.
On the business side of things, she said her office would not bank on foreign donor funds anymore because of the risks associated with it.
Mkhwebane on Tuesday told Parliament that her predecessor Thuli Madonsela had secured a donation of $500 000 from the US. The money was meant for training the staff in investigations, she said.
Prominent in the changes on the cards was the titling of investigation reports.
“If the report is written Secure in Comfort, you will have to go deeper to find out what report it was,” she said.
Mkhwebane said writing report titles in full would assist students and academics to go back to the report to refer to it.
“That decision was taken when we met with management. It was not influenced by how Parliament is viewing it. I am an independent thinker, and to me it makes sense to have a title of the report which is easily accessible,” she said.
She was set to establish a backlog project team to focus on disposing of all cases older than two years.
There was a backlog of a total of 260 cases older than two years under good governance and integrity branch, and 47 under administrative justice and service delivery.
A moratorium had been placed on international trips. “We believe enough exchange of notes with our counterparts elsewhere has been done. I will be getting reports on the lessons we have learnt from all the trips that have been undertaken so we can assess how we have benefited.”
Mkhwebane reiterated that her office would not release the state capture report pending the court processes.
The report would have been released by Madonsela on her last day of office. However, Madonsela was interdicted by President Jacob Zuma and Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Des van Rooyen.
The matter is scheduled to be heard in the high court in Pretoria on November 1.
Hiring consultants would not happen under her watch, Mkhwebane said.
She said she wanted to invest in building internal capacity to include the expertise, such as forensics and auditing, required by the office.
Mkhwebane also told the media she had not received a written handover from Madonsela due to her busy schedule.
Regarding whether the perceived hastily completed investigation into state capture signalled Madonsela’s lack of trust in her to handle it, she said: “The rush of compiling the report and that she didn’t trust me; I won’t comment.”
Mkhwebane’s appointment was recommended by all political parties except the DA, which raised concerns about her being a former spy.
There were plans to make the public protector office accessible and visible among far-flung communities, she said.