DA refers Northern Cape Premier and DG to PSC

10 December 2018

The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape today wrote to the Office of the Premier to request that Premier Sylvia Lucas invites director-general Justice Bekebeke to write to all senior management staff in the Northern Cape provincial administration and requests them to attend a meeting with the DA.

This comes after the DG wrote to heads of departments, heads of ministries, chief financial officers and deputy directors-general earlier this year demanding that they attend a meeting at the provincial office of the ANC. And the DG acted in accordance with the instruction of the provincial secretary of the ANC.

If the Office of the Premier can convene meetings at the say-so of the ANC’s provincial secretary, this same courtesy must be extended to other leaders of political parties. We believe that our request will be ignored or declined – highlighting how irregular a meeting with state officials and political parties is.

We will therefore refer the Premier and DG to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to investigate their unethical conduct.

The letter written by the director-general earlier this year was on the official letterhead of the Office of the Premier, using the official contact details and distributed using the official machinery of the state. Together, this creates the impression that the request to attend the ANC provincial secretary’s meeting is a legitimate request and coerces public servants to attend political events despite their own affiliations. All public servants have the right to their political freedom and forcing anyone to advance the agendas of the failing ANC is unacceptable.

If the premier wants to avoid the impression that she is riding roughshod over the political rights of senior management staff, she will agree with our request and schedule the meeting as soon as possible.

Issued by Andrew Louw, DA Northern Cape Premier Candidate, 10 December 2018