Rasool's appointment: Is the diplomatic corps a clearing house for the corrupt?
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to President Zuma asking him to immediately withdraw Ebrahim Rasool's candidacy as Ambassador-Designate to the United States. Yesterday, the ANC Secretary-General, Gwede Mantashe, said that Mr. Rasool had been removed as Premier of the Western Cape on the basis of allegations that journalists were paid to write positive stories about him.
So we must ask the ANC government, what is the difference in the ethical eligibility criteria between being a premier and an ambassador? Surely the principles of good conduct apply to all public servants universally? If not, does this perhaps suggest that our diplomatic service is a clearing house for those who do not have the good standing to serve anywhere else in government or the public service? And most importantly, what does it say to the United States, one of our most important trading partners, of the esteem we hold them in that we would knowingly send them someone previously dismissed because of corruption allegations against them?
Clearly the ANC realized that it had a prima facie case against Rasool otherwise it would never have taken such drastic action as withdrawing him as premier. How then, knowing that Mr. Rasool had allegations of unethical and possibly corrupt behavior hanging over him, could the government appoint him as ambassador? Mr. Rasool has said time and time again that if anyone had any charges against him, they should make them. Well, it would seem that his own party has already made those charges and as such, Mr. Rasool's protestations should now be moot. My colleague Kenneth Mubu, MP wrote to President Zuma on this matter on July 4, a letter to which he is yet to receive a response to. In light of Mr. Mantashe's revelations, this matter is given far greater urgency and I expect the government to adhere to its stated mission of rooting out corruption and taking decisive action.
The DA is calling on the government to do the right thing and apply the same ethical criteria to Mr. Rasool's ambassadorial appointment as they applied to his tenure as Premier. If they do not, it shall merely demonstrate, in the crudest way, that ANC good practice in dealing with corruption is to allow a brief cooling-off period where disgraced cadres are allowed to lower their profiles in the hope that the public might forget about them, before being quietly redeployed to illustrious posts, making a mockery of the principles of both maintaining ethical standards and accountability.
Hopefully the President can address these concerns in his response to me.
Statement issued by Stevens Mokgalapa, MP, Democratic Alliance Shadow Deputy Minister of International Relations, August 4 2010
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