Wally Mbhele
President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Correctional Services Ben Skosana have been asked to intervene in the leadership crisis at the embattled Department of Correctional Services which has been described as nearing “catastrophic” proportions.
With the globe-trotting commissioner of correctional services, Khulekani Sitole, in Sweden for the World Police Fire Games, senior departmental officials have launched a lobby group to challenge his leadership.
Sitole’s problems may be compounded by the outcome of a report by Auditor General Henri Kluever on alleged misconduct and corruption. Sitole is accused of using prison facilities to run a soccer team and taking unauthorised overseas trips. Skosana asked Kluever to investigate the claims. The report was sent to Sitole, who was given three weeks to respond.
Sitole’s aides are mystified that he chose to go abroad when he knew of Kluever’s deadline and that the Correctional Staff Forum (CSF) – in an act reminiscent of a palace revolution – was being launched to address grievances against him.
In its founding statement, the CSF said it would address the lack of equal opportunities in the department, the lack of an integrated approach to transformation, and favouritism and nepotism.
The continual and arbitrary transferrals, “ostensibly in the interest of the department”, of senior officials in the department, many considered to be Sitole’s opponents, have also been identified as a burning issue.
This group claims an environment of fear exists in the department, “and there is a tendency to earmark and appoint … individuals to senior positions on the basis of … union affiliations”.
In a letter to Skosana the CSF told the minister he is “leading a department that has been identified by the Presidential Review Commission … as nearing a crisis situation with regard to service delivery … The commission made a recommendation that the president should reassess the suitability of some of our top management.”
Department officials told Mbeki in a memorandum that they are “bitterly disappointed” that despite the release of another report in January, “no action has been taken, or there has been undue delay”, in addressing the issues in the report.
The report was submitted by Imibono Data, which was commissioned by the department at the cost of R400 000 to audit its human resources and labour relations policies and practices.
According to department staff, the report “has shown the inadequacies of our affirmative action policies and the transformation process … The department’s human resource practices have been described as low-keyed. No concrete action has been taken to address questions raised in the report.”
Staff allege that a prominent member of the Police, Prisons and Civil Rights Union (Popcru), Zwi Mdltshe, was given the position of chief negotiator for the department. He is believed to still be holding his position in the union and to represent it at the Public Service Bargaining Council.
Steven Korabie, the former chief deputy director of human resources, was transferred to Cape Town as provincial commissioner – a position he had occupied before. More bizarre is the removal of the suitably qualified Clive Monacks from the position of director of labour relations. He was replaced by the chaplain of the department’s religious services, Hennie Human. One of the CSF’s founder members, Hlanganisa Tshabalala, deputy director of labour relations, is being transferred to a junior position at Pretoria Central prison. A former deputy director in Sitole’s office was appointed deputy director of personnel maintenance, and is alleged by the CSF to have employed his wife and his in- laws.
After a series of battles with Sitole last year, former director of human resources Thandi Kgosidintse was transferred to “unrest-riddled” KwaZulu-Natal, where she became provincial commissioner. Sitole blamed her for blowing the whistle on the soccer team scandal. In KwaZulu-Natal, Popcru made it impossible for her to perform her duties until Sitole was relieved her of these duties.
The Kgosidintse case was so remarkable that former president Nelson Mandela said in his opening of Parliament speech: “There is something wrong with a society where warders chase away management and appoint their own friends to lead institutions.”
The department’s performance, according to certain staff, should not be judged only on the ability to reduce escapes or protect the rights of inmates, but also on the way it treats its staff.
“The mission we are embarking upon is likely to invite all sorts of retribution,” said CSF officials this week.
In a letter to Mbeki, they predicted that in the coming months, “a few opportunistic careerists … who have been feathering their own nests at a rapid rate, are expected to malign us … We will not flinch but will remain … committed to your ideals of creating a culture of good governance and rooting out all forms of corruption.”