Public Protector needs to focus on ICT Indaba conflicts and ethics
The possible conflict of interest of the Minister of Communications, Dina Pule, will fall outside the scope of the investigations into the ICT Indaba debacle by the office of the Auditor General (AG) and should therefore still be probed by the Public Protector.
I have asked the Public Protector to lift the suspension of my request of late June to investigate the possible conflict of interest of Communications Minister Dina Pule relating to the ICT Indaba. A man to whom the Minister Pule is romantically linked, Phosane Mngqibisa, is believed to have benefitted financially from the Indaba which was hosted by the Minister.
On 28 June, I received communication from the Public Protector confirming that, due to resource constraints in her department, she had decided to suspend proceedings on my request to allow for an AG probe to run its course. The AG had been approached by the Minister to probe the R10 million aspect of the department's financing of the event. It is believed that private companies - mainly telecommunications companies - paid a R26-million bill to stage the ICT Indaba.
I have, however, received confirmation from the AG's office, through corporate executive Alice Muller, that there is no overlap between the scope of the AG's probe and my request to the Public Protector.
Ms Muller's communication to me indicated that the AG's office discussed Minister Pule's request with her on 4 July 2012, and that it was determined that: