When the presidency recruited Titu Mafolo as a political adviser it was aware that he had left a previous job under a cloud
Mungo Soggot
The Office of the President hired Titus Mafolo President Thabo Mbeki’s adviser recently charged with fraud and perjury knowing that he had a chequered employment history involving allegations of dishonesty.
Mafolo, currently on bail, is due to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court next month to answer charges stemming from his claim to the police that he was hijacked and robbed in December. The Office of the President has not suspended Mafolo, saying it will keep an eye on the case.
Now it has emerged that when it recruited Mafolo as a political adviser in 1998, the Office of the President knew he had left a previous job under a cloud because of various financial irregularities.
The job in question was with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), which, it is understood, offered Mafolo the chance to resign after he was accused of claiming expenses for a conference he allegedly did not attend. He was also accused of improperly using $15 000 in foreign travel expense money for himself. After resigning, he allegedly kept his company car and did not respond to requests from Idasa to return it. The institute eventually had to fetch the car itself.
It is understood that a representative of the office of the president contacted Idasa before hiring Mafolo to check the circumstances under which he had left the institute.
Paul Graham, the senior Idasa official who spoke to the Office of the President at the time, confirmed this week that he had outlined the circumstances surrounding Mafolo’s departure. Graham said he had also told the presidency at the time that these allegations dated back several years and related to managerial skills as opposed to political acumen. He said he had therefore opined to the presidency that they were of questionable relevance where his new job was concerned. He declined to comment further.
Mafolo, a Pretoria-based liberation activist, joined the presidency after serving as chair of the National Assembly’s housing committee.
Bheki Khumalo, spokesman for the Office of the President, said the presidency did not want to comment on Mafolo’s previous track record and on why he was hired in the first place.
He said earlier this month that no action had yet been taken against Mafolo for his recent brush with the law. “Justice must be allowed to take its course,” he said. “The presidency will continue looking at the situation as it unfolds,” he told Sapa.
Mafolo has made a name for himself in the presidency as a political trouble shooter, hitting the headlines last year over the bizarre “plot” saga in which Cyril Ramaphosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Mathews Phosa were accused of conspiring against Mbeki. Mafolo has been singled out as having propagated talk of the plot, and favoured airing the allegations in public.
Mafolo had not replied to a request for comment at the time of going to press. In the meantime, his lawyers have denied that he lied about the theft of his Mercedes, saying in a press statement: “Up to this stage our client’s vehicle has not been recovered. Our client does not have anything to gain from ‘faking’ the hijacking of his own vehicle.”
Molefe Attorneys added that “the insinuation that he faked the hijacking of his vehicle and robbery of his belongings is therefore rejected with the contempt it deserves”.
The statement said Mafolo had co-operated with the investigating officer in the case and showed him the place where the alleged crime took place.
“As time went on our client became dissatisfied with the way the investigating officer was conducting the investigations,” the attorneys’ statement said.
“Instead of addressing Mr Mafolo’s concerns the investigating officer decided to lay charges against our client and proceeded to obtain a warrant of arrest.”
The police have declined to elaborate on the charges against Mafolo, beyond saying they found his statement on the alleged hijacking to be “full of inconsistencies”.
Mafolo said the hijackers robbed him of cash and clothes, locked him in the boot of the car and released him in the Stanza Bobape informal settlement. He also claimed the tracker company to which he subscribed had not reacted quickly when his car was taken, but the company has denied this.