ANC must expel Pule from Parliament without a parachute
As the leader of the ANC, President Jacob Zuma must immediately expel former Communications Minister Dina Pule from Parliament and not give her a soft landing in a diplomatic or government posting, as is openly discussed as an option in ANC circles.
The Public Protector, Adv Thuli Madonsela, has today found Pule guilty of unlawful, unethical and improper conduct in connection with the appointment of service providers to render event management services for the hosting of the Department of Communications ICT Indaba held in Cape Town from 4 to 7 June 2012.
Amongst other findings, Adv Madonsela found that Pule violated section 96(2)(c) of the Constitution and section 2.3(h) of the Executive Ethics Code.
In terms of section 96(2)(c) of the Constitution, Cabinet members may not "use their positions or any information entrusted to them, to enrich themselves or improperly benefit any other person".
Section 2.3(h) of the Executive Ethics Code states that Members of the Executive may not "make improper use of any allowance or payment properly made to them, or disregard the administrative rules which apply to such allowance or payments".
Pule has already been found guilty by the multiparty Parliamentary Ethics and Members' Interests Committee of violating the Executive Members' Ethics Code, and escaped with an insincere apology and a seat on Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport.
Adv Madonsela's damning report of the rapacious way in which Ms Pule, her romantic partner Phosane Mngqibisa and some officials in the Department, saw Carol Bouwer's idea of the ICT Indaba as an opportunity for self-enrichment and cavalier behaviour, are a clear indication that Ms Pule has an ethical deficit and inability to act in the best interests of the government and citizens when her own interests are conflicted. This is not the fabric from which diplomats and high office bearers are made.
These must be added to the basket of investigations already underway at my request by the Hawks into possible corruption into the improper appointments of hand-picked people into senior management and board positions in the Department of Communications and entities that report to it.
Decisive action is now needed to remove Dina Pule from any public office.
President Zuma must follow the Public Protectors' recommendations that Pule face the full might of the law for her transgressions while in public office, eat humble pie and make good on her promise to ensure that every taxpayers' cent that funded her former boyfriend's jet-set life as her companion is returned to the fiscus.
The public apologies the Public Protector wants Ms Pule to make to Carol Bouwer, the Sunday Times, the staff at the Department of Communications, and Parliament must be made unequivocally and in full appreciation that she has acted unlawfully, unethically and improperly. She must not be allowed to get away with mealy-mouthed utterances she used in Parliament earlier this year, which clearly showed that she was not sorry for her actions.
Pule's successor, Communications Minister Yunus Carrim, should, as directed by the Public Protector, drive the law enforcement agencies to urgently investigate Ms Pule's unlawful activities raised in the report, as well as those already referred to them by Parliament following the damning findings by its Ethics and Members‘ Interests committee.
He must also ensure that the deputy director-generals in the department, who were complicit in the hi-jacking of Ms Bouwer's ICT Indaba concept and then in running interference with the Sunday Times' investigation and the Public Protector's probing of the event, are dealt with in a manner that is an example to all senior public servants tempted to bend the rules to serve the personal interests of politicians and their fellow travelers, rather than those of all South Africans.
Statement issued by Marian Shinn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Communications, December 5 2013
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