Premier vows to fire staff who fail at work
NEWLY appointed Gauteng MEC for Social Development Molebatsi Bopape’s job could be on the line – if Premier David Makhura’s hard-hitting words become a reality.
This became apparent yesterday when Makhura threatened to fire any of his MECs “if they get involved in wrong things” that are not the business of his government.
So far Bopape, The Star understands, is the only MEC the premier had formally reported to the provincial legislature’s integrity commissioner, Ralph Mgijima. This followed their second-last executive meeting held in Pretoria last month.
After that meeting, Makhura confirmed that he had reported Bopape to Mgijima, but he is yet to give details on the nature of the allegations against her.
Makhura also confirmed placing head of department Namhla Siqaza on suspension after two officials of the auditor-general’s office made sworn statements that Siqaza and two other officials in Sports, Arts and Culture made numerous attempts to bribe them.
The allegations of bribery were contained in the briefing document on the key findings of the AG’s Public Finance Management Act audit findings for 2014/15. The AG further added that attempts were made in July to bribe his officials.
In September, the media were given details of irregular expenditure at the Human Settlements Department amounting to R2 billion, but no mention was made of the alleged involvement of Siqaza in an alleged bribery attempt to get a clean audit for Sports, Arts and Culture.
Asked if there was a provincial reshuffle yesterday at the briefing on the outcomes of provincial executive council, Makhura said this was never discussed in the provincial cabinet.
“If there is an incompetent MEC or one who gets involved in wrong things, I will fire that MEC without even hesitating.”
However, the premier said he was happy with the performance of his team this year and wanted them to continue with their work.
“If there is slippage… one or two members of the team slip out of focus and get involved in things that are not the business of government, we will fire them, that’s what I can assure you,” he said.
Makhura was also at pains to explain that his government had met all its performance targets for this year, in light of a scorecard markdown of many members of his cabinet by the DA, which accused the premier of failing to live up to his promises.