ANC moves to capture the Public Service Commission

20 November 2019

Hot on the heels of the ANC’s immoral deployment of the incompetent convicted liar, Bathabile Dlamini, to the Social Housing Authority, Cyril Ramaphosa’s party yesterday moved to capture the Public Service Commission (PSC). Despite vociferous opposition from the Democratic Alliance (DA), the ANC used its majority in the parliamentary subcommittee to force through the proposed appointment of ANC cadre Zanele Hlatshwayo as a PSC commissioner.

In her time as ANC mayor of Msundizi in KwaZulu-Natal, Hlatshwayo systematically destroyed the municipality. By 2010, even the ANC had had enough. They removed Hlatshwayo from her mayoralty and placed the collapsed municipality under administration. But because the party lives in an accountability-free universe, the ANC immediately and immorally deployed this incompetent cadre to the KwaZulu-Natal health department, where the government continued to pay her millions in taxpayer monies for the past eight years.

Now, the ANC is determined to use cadre Hlatshwayo to capture the PSC, where she will be paid more than R1.5 million per year. The Constitution stipulates that the PSC “is independent and must be impartial, and must exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice.” The Constitution further instructs that each PSC commissioner must be “a fit and proper person with knowledge of, or experience in, administration, management or the provision of public services.”

Hlatshwayo fails dismally on both counts. In addition to being a proven failure as a former ANC mayor, the CV she submitted to the parliamentary committee indicates that Hlatshwayo is currently a senior member of the ANC-aligned SANCO. This is in direct contravention of the PSC Act, which directs that “A commissioner shall not hold office in any political party or political organisation.” Even more shockingly, during her interview, Hlatshwayo insisted that she “will never stop being political.”

As a proven incompetent and partisan political deployee, Hlatshwayo belongs nowhere near South Africa’s most important independent public service watchdog. The ANC’s insistence on her appointment indicates the party’s determination to capture and undermine an organization tasked with fighting corruption and mismanagement by its cadres.

Instead of cadre Hlatshwayo, the DA recommends the appointment of Kevin Malunga, the current Deputy Public Protector of the Republic. Unlike cadre Hlatshwayo, Malunga has a proven track record as a highly qualified, dedicated and professional public servant. Malunga is an eminently fit and proper person for the position of PSC commissioner.

This scandal is yet more evidence that hidden under the ruse of Ramaphosa’s empty talk, the ANC is as determined as ever to capture the state and enable cadres to loot. But the DA will not sit back and allow them to capture and corrupt another key lever in our fight against state collapse. Well aware of the ANC’s intention to capture the PSC, the DA recorded the proceedings of the subcommittee.

If the ANC does not withdraw the recommendation to appoint Hlatshwayo, the DA will not hesitate to approach the courts to set aside this patently irrational appointment, and to request personal cost orders against the ANC members of the committee who knowingly recommended an unfit and improper cadre.

Hot on the heels of “deploying” Bathabile Dlamini, the ANC moves to capture the *independent* Public Service Commission. Here is part of the CV submitted by Zanele Hlatshwayo, the ANC’s preferred cadre to capture the PSC. She previously destroyed Pietermaritzburg as mayor. pic.twitter.com/HcGNsY2xFr

— Leon Schreiber (@Leon_Schreib) November 20, 2019

Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 20 November 2019