I will this Monday write to the Public Protector, Adv. Lawrence Mushwana, to ask that his office investigate the conduct of Gauteng Commissioner of Correctional Services, Thozama Mqobi-Balfour (wife of the former Minister of Correctional Services, Ngconde Balfour).

Mqobi-Balfour is currently renting property at a cost of R35 000 per month to the taxpayer, despite having an official residence available to her. Today's newspapers report (see article) a number of other questionable expenses on the part of the Gauteng Commissioner, including:

• Hiring a Mercedes Benz, at a cost of R2 000 a day, to attend a choir contest (for which she also claimed further expenses of R12 000);
• Attending the Grahamstown Arts Festival to watch the Leeukop Prison Choir at a cost of R11 400;
• Undertaking a trip to the Eastern Cape with her kids, ostensibly to provide "labour law training" but the relevant officials are unaware of any such training having taken place (unknown amount claimed);
• Intending to accompany a DSC sports team to Canada later this year, at an unknown cost.

(The Democratic Alliance also has it on good authority that the Commissioner used public money to pay for her move to the rented property, an issue I will pursue through parliamentary questions.)

All of the money used appears to have been redirected from that part of the DCS budget that would have been used to pay the salaries of other officials - many of whom are hard working and loyal public servants, scarcely able to come out on their salaries at the end of the month; and who certainly do not have access to official accommodation. Like the rest of the public, they are being forced to watch on while the Commissioner's life of luxury is revealed in the national press.

It is significant that Mqobi-Balfour has not yet been suspended. The National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Xoliswa Sibeko, as well as the DCS Financial Head, Nandi Mareka, have both been suspended over exactly the same sort of conduct. Indeed, Commissioner Sibeko's rented property cost some R5 000 less per month than Mqobi-Balfour's. If standards are to be applied equally, Mqobi-Balfour should also be suspended.

Together with the new evidence that has surfaced today, and given the fact that the DCS has failed to take action against the Gauteng Commissioner, I believe there is now a strong case for the Public Protector to investigate. The available facts suggest that public money is being misused for personal indulgences and the Commissioner must now account for that expenditure.

The role and influence of the former Minister of Correctional Services, Ngconde Balfour, cannot be overlooked. The allegation has been made that he intervened to help approve his wife's rented accommodation. If that is the case, it would constitute an abuse of his position and he too should now be held to account. I will thus include this allegation in my letter to Adv. Mushwana.

Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of correctional services, July 19 2009

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