M&G Reporter
ONLY three of the country’s nine premiers passed the Mail & Guardian’s second Government Efficiency Test.
The newspaper investigated whether the premiers care enough about ordinary citizens to answer their letters. After six weeks, responses to a citizen’s letter had been received only from Gauteng’s Tokyo Sexwale, the Northern Cape’s Manne Dipico and the Western Cape’s Hernus Kriel.
The newspaper sent letters at the beginning of August to the premiers in the name of Glynnis Hutton. Hutton told each premier that she had interests in their province and was “concerned about potential conflicts of interests of those in power in the
“Could you please tell me if you hold any equity interests in companies, or directorships? If so, please supply me with details,” Hutton asked.
Dipico responded within three weeks to say he has no such interests. Sexwale’s office generated the most paper, with a note to say that our query had been received and passed on to the relevant person. Just this week, a fuller reply arrived to say that Sexwale had no directorships or equity holdings.
Kriel’s office replied promptly to say he had no directorships, but did have shares in a listed company. He declined to name it, but said it did not conflict with his
At that point, the newspaper itself contacted the offices of the other six premiers to ask why they had not replied.
Raymond Mhlaba of the Eastern Cape had the post office to blame. His officials said they had replied on August 22 — and it was probably still in the post. They faxed us a copy of a letter saying he holds no directorships or equity.
KwaZulu-Natal’s Frank Mdladlose blamed geography. His assistant phoned to say she had not seen the letter because she was in Pietermaritzburg and the letter had gone to Ulundi. A copy was faxed to her on Tuesday, but no reply has yet been
The office of the Northern Transvaal’s Ngoaka Ramatlhodi faxed a copy of a letter they said had been sent on August 17, saying the premier had no equity interests or
Mathews Phosa of Mpumalanga phoned personally to convey his apologies at the delay in replying. He faxed a more detailed response outlining his interests than any of the other premiers. Phosa was a board member of Mapulaneng Enterprises before 1984, but has not been able to attend a meeting since then and has received no fees.
He is a director of Small Beginnings development trust and a trustee of an old-age fundraising operation.
* In the first M&G Government Efficiency Test earlier this year, questions were put from a citizen to members of the Cabinet and the newspaper catalogued the slow replies from these politicians.