The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the action that has been taken to suspend the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Xoliswa Sibeko. The suspension follows the news that she and the Regional Commissioner in Gauteng, Thozama Mqobi-Balfour, were living in accommodation paid for by the taxpayer, while perfectly acceptable official accommodation was available for their use in the Pretoria Central compound (see previous statement).
The ostensible reason why these two senior officials stayed in rented accommodation was apparently because of security concerns. Yet these two residences had recently been upgraded, amongst other things to install state-of-the-art security devices, at the cost respectively of R150 000 and R50 000. Their stated reason for living in rented accommodation was therefore not valid.
Moreover, there is a suggestion that the money for the rent of the residences, which according to one source may be as high as R35 000 per month, has not been provided for in the budget of the Department, and the transaction may be illegal in terms of the Public Finance Management Act.
I have already been in touch with the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services to request that the Commissioners appear before the Committee to explain in detail how this situation arose, why the decision to rent accommodation was taken and from which programme in the Department's budget the funds were appropriated. This meeting will take place on Tuesday 4 August 2009.
I have also asked my colleague Mark Steele MP, who is the DA's representative on SCOPA, to interrogate this matter fully when the Auditor-General's report on the accounts of the Department is examined by the Committee.
The DCS desperately needs a turn-around strategy to lift it out of the morass of mismanagement that has characterized the last five years. The fact that the new Minister has taken action in this matter is encouraging, but it is only the beginning of what needs to be done. We hope answers will be coming from the Department as rapidly as possible.
Statement issued by James Selfe MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of correctional services, July 13 2009
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