Purges and paranoia in office of public protector
● The instability in public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s office has reached a tipping point, with the office confirming the removal of Cleopatra Mosana as her spokeswoman.
The office said this week that there had been a breakdown in their relationship.
Mosana is the latest victim of a continuing purge of staff Mkhwebane no longer trusts.
The office said Mosana would be placed somewhere else in the office of the public protector, but insiders said she had not been there for the past two weeks.
“There has been a breakdown of relationship between the public protector and Ms Mosana as her spokesperson,” said head of communication Oupa Segalwe.
He said the two women were in discussions about where to transfer Mosana.
Mosana’s absence has raised concerns in the institution over Mkhwebane allegedly paying off people she wanted out, but who would not resign.
Former chief financial officer Kennedy Kaposa is said to have been paid close to R1million to leave.
An insider said Mkhwebane’s removal of Kaposa last year was “fuelled by xenophobia”.
He was born in Malawi but is a naturalised South African citizen.
He was subjected to a security check after Mkhwebane allegedly asked the State Security Agency to conduct vetting for a topsecret clearance which is not required by the office.
Naturalised citizens need top-secret clearance only if they are employed by the state and do work which requires access to state secrets.
The source said Kaposa was one of two naturalised South Africans who failed being cleared.
It is understood that after three months of fighting, the matter was settled and, according to the source, “hundreds of thousands of rands we don’t have was used to pay him off”.
Segalwe said Kaposa agreed to an amicable, “mutually agreed separation”. He said the terms were confidential.
Kaposa said he could not comment because his departure from the office of the public protector was part of a confidentiality agreement.
The public protector’s office also paid out Janine Hicks, who had been hired by former public protector Thuli Madonsela to deal with quality assurance. She was paid out the remainder of her contract, the source said.
Madonsela’s former chief of staff, Bonginkosi Dlamini, was apparently paid an undisclosed amount to leave the office even though he had six months remaining on his contract.
The source alleged that Mkhwebane’s purge was directly related to paranoia she has sustained in the office.
In November CEO Themba Dlamini resigned after nine months at the job.
“He was appointed to do her bidding and then when they fought he was pushed out,” the source said.
Segalwe said the impression that Mkhwebane was purging anyone she was suspicious of was false.
“There is stability within the [office of the public protector]. The institution is able to render services to members of the public and is working hard to meet its performance targets. Our only challenge remains resourcing, which has its roots in the historical underfunding of the institution,” he said.
This week Mkhwebane again complained to parliament that the lack of funding of her office was hampering its work to produce efficient reports.
However, a second source said that paying off staff was “wasteful expenditure”.
The source further indicated that the office was bleeding money for ill-fated court challenges, the latest being close to R10-million for the legal fight between Mkhwebane and the Reserve Bank and Absa.