‘I did see them in bed together when I went to collect both their clothing for ironing’
This week, parliament’s ethics committee slammed the web of deceit woven by former communications minister Dina Pule, her lies about her boyfriend as well as her moves to enrich him
AXED communications minister Dina Pule and her top officials are liars who should face criminal charges.
That is the official finding of parliament’s ethics committee, which wrapped up an exhaustive five-month investigation into Pule this week.
The committee concluded that Pule, her boyfriend, Phosane Mngqibisa, and Communications Department deputy directors-general Themba Phiri and Sam Vilakazi spun a web of lies trying to defend how the former minister abused her position to benefit her lover.
A scathing report, unanimously adopted by the multiparty, ninemember panel led by ANC stalwart Ben Turok, has recommended that all four be criminally charged for wilfully misleading parliament under oath.
The investigation was sparked by a series of Sunday Times exposés, which revealed that Pule had:
Bullied telecoms companies, including Telkom, to sponsor last year’s ICT Indaba in Cape Town from which Mngqibisa benefited to the tune of R6-million in suspect “management fees”;
Secretly flew around the world with him at taxpayers’ expense, staying at expensive hotels, including the Ritz Carlton in New York, and using luxury car services; and
Dished out top jobs at key parastatals under her control for his friends — a case of alleged corruption being investigated by the Hawks.
A key witness that rubbished Pule’s claim that Mngqibisa was not her lover was her former personal assistant, Tsakane Mahlaule, who testified that she had seen them in bed together on several occasions during trips.
Referring to a trip to Prague in June 2011, Mahlaule said Pule and Mngqibisa had sat next to each other on the flight from South Africa and shared the same room in the Prague Marriot Hotel. “I did see them in bed together when I went to collect both their clothing for ironing,” she said.
From Prague, they flew to Paris together, where “the minister and Mngqibisa spent that weekend shopping”, she said. “We did not have any official meetings from arrival until departure.
“Road travel arrangements were the same as was in Prague: two cars, one for me and the other one for the minister and Mngqibisa. The minister and Mngqibisa were sharing a suite.”
She said they also shared cars and hotel rooms on a trip in July 2011 to Washington and New York, where they stayed at the Ritz-Carlton hotel overlooking Central Park.
The panel rejected Vilakazi’s attempts to cover for Pule by claiming she would not know who would travel with her on official trips because “this is determined by officials” of the department.
The report found Vilakazi’s response “evasive and it appears that he intended to mislead the panel”.
It concluded that Pule had broken parliament’s code of conduct by failing to declare her relationship with Mngqibisa, enabling him “to gain improper financial benefit”.
The Sunday Times exposed that Pule had pressured Telkom, whose largest single shareholder is the government, to sponsor the ICT Indaba. Pule claimed under oath that the sponsorship was already in place when she took office in October 2011. But the report found “the contract of sponsorship is signed on May 10 2012 when Pule was already in office”.
“Pule did not disclose to Telkom that her permanent companion had a financial interest in the ICT Ind- aba which Telkom was sponsoring. Pule, as an executive member, should not have put herself in a position where she had a conflict of interest.”
Her crime was compounded by “a clear overlap” between her “official duties in her oversight role of Telkom and her facilitation of funding for the ICT Indaba”.
The report reveals Pule spent months giving the ethics committee the runaround with complaints of a lack of procedural fairness — found to be spurious — and on one occasion asked the committee to resend the evidence bundle almost a month after it had been couriered to her office.
It also rejects several claims made publicly by Mngqibisa in the past year, among them that every cent of sponsors’ money for the ICT Indaba could be properly accounted for.
The report found that the financial statements supplied did not constitute a proper audit.
Mngqibisa was accused of “improperly” drawing money from [ICT Indaba organiser] Carol Bouwer’s account before submitting invoices, demanding to be paid his management fees up front, lacking experience and doing shoddy work.
The department’s former ICT Indaba planning manager, Bandile Hadebe, said there was “no reason for including [Mngqibisa’s company] Khemano as a partner”, highlighting his “substandard work”.
He added that there was “no talk of Khemano’s involvement in the ICT Indaba until Pule was appointed” and that “Phiri told him Pule wanted the inclusion of Khemano”.
He was removed from his post after raising his reservations about Khemano with Phiri.
The report also rejects Phiri’s claim that he did not bully Bouwer into taking on Khemano as a partner. “The evidence reflects that Khemano was imposed on Bouwer,” the report finds.
It recommends that Pule be issued a reprimand, fined 30 days’ salary, lose her parliamentary privileges for 15 days and retrospectively correct her false declarations of interest — the harshest sanction the rules allow.
It also urges President Jacob Zuma to revise parliament’s code of conduct to increase penalties for serious transgressions.
Communications Department officials whose delaying tactics included ignoring requests to appear before the panel, submitting incomplete information or claiming crucial documents had “disappeared” should be referred for investigation to the Public Service Commission, the report states.