Western Cape sex-for-jobs MEC was given special authority to run hiring and firing in his department

7 March 2022

1.

After allegedly running a sex-for-jobs scheme at the Department of Social Development, with several of his victims receiving jobs at Child and Youth Care Centres in the province, when MEC Albert Fritz moved to the Department of Community Safety, in 2019, he insisted that one of the political appointees assume control of hiring and firing in the department.

Fritz arrived at the Department of Community Safety with a list of more than a dozen names of people he demanded be given jobs, the GOOD Party has been reliably informed. His plan was thwarted by senior officials on the basis that there were no vacancies, and that they couldn't make appointments simply on his instruction.

MEC's are entitled to appoint a handful of support staff in their executive office, who are regarded as "political appointments".

Undeterred, Fritz used his executive authority in terms of the Public Service Act to withdraw the officials' delegated authority to recruit and appoint staff in the Department and shifted the delegation to one of his political appointees – a close confidante and DA cadre he brought with him from Social Development.

This made Community Safety the only department in the Provincial Government where the appointment of staff was not delegated to senior management in the department.

It is a pinnacle example of the perversion of good governance.

2.

Premier Alan Winde must account for this perversion as Fritz couldn't have executed his dastardly scheme without his knowledge as well as the knowledge, and complicity, of officials in the Department of the Premier, and the provincial Director-General.

Human Resource management, called "People Management" in the Western Cape Provincial Government, is a centralized service in the Premier's department.

Fritz's "re-arrangements" would have required assistance from Legal Services to draft the new delegations, and Legal Services also falls within the Premier's office.

The Director-General of the Province would have chaired a senior management team where only one department was not empowered to appoint its staff, with appointments being made under the direct control of the MEC.

Alarm bells should have been ringing in the Premier's Office about good governance, besides sex-for-jobs schemes.

3.

In September 2019, just after Winde shifted Fritz from Social Development to Community Safety, former MEC for Transport & Public Works, and former DA Provincial Leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, said in the provincial legislature that the Western Cape Government had, "a disturbing culture of sex for jobs, sex for tenders, sex for marks etc".

This bombshell revelation appears to have been left there, and never followed up.

Prompted by his suspension of Fritz, I asked the Premier what he had done to address this "culture".

He replied on 4 February 2022 that "I cannot reflect on the comments made by another member in the house..."

The question is: Is ignoring his cabinet colleague (and political leader's) acknowledgement of a culture of transactional sex in the provincial government not a dereliction of duty?

It raises questions about what Winde knew about this culture and whether he is a fit and proper person to hold office, himself.

Winde's disregard of Madikizela's admission enabled the continuing sexual predation of Albert Fritz, that Winde now claims to be "very angry" about.

4.

Fritz arrived at Community Safety with a four-member team from his eight-year tenure as MEC for Social Development.

These four political appointees were also subsequently suspended by the Premier as a precautionary measure while his so-called investigation of Fritz was underway.

Fritz's modus operandi, in capturing the power to make appointments at Community Safety, raises questions about hiring at Social Development, and the integrity of its officials.

Fritz did not remove the delegation to make appointments from senior officials at Social Development, yet managed to secure jobs for some of his victims, there. This suggests he must have been assisted by the officials who had the delegation.

Fritz's resignation cannot be the last word on the matter.

An independent investigation is required encompassing both departments that he contaminated, including the role of senior management in the Department of Social Development who facilitated the appointment of staff at the request of Fritz.

And the Premier must account for his role in permitting Fritz to change the recruitment and hiring arrangements which enabled this scheme as well as the complicity of his own department.

Issued by Brett Herron, Secretary-General & Member of Parliament, GOOD, 7 March 2022