Thebe Mabanga
The Department of Trade and Industry is experiencing simmering discontent over its restructuring process, with its Director General, Alistair Ruiters, and two other officials accused of centralising power and sidelining senior colleagues.
Sources said that those who have been pushed to the margins include the chief economist Dave Kaplan, whose office is said to be in the process of being disbanded; there had been six resignations from the department in January alone.
Approached for comment, Kaplan said he had no immediate plans to quit.
According to Edwin Smith, spokesperson for Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin, the transformation process has taken place in two phases. The first was the formation of six divisions, each to be headed by a deputy director general, with “cross-cutting” teams intended to coordinate activities across divisions.
The principle is widely accepted as necessary. What appears to be problematic is the manner in which it has been handled and the personalities driving it.
Department sources said the formation of an “executive management unit”, and the appointment of Wendy Dobson and Portia Molefe to the positions of chief director for external relations and policy coordination and chief operations officer respectively, lies at the heart of the grievances. Dobson and Molefe are described as acting as Ruiters’s “enforcers”, with overriding powers.
Dobson, according to departmental sources, boasts frequently of her ability to override deputy directors general on policy matters and to have effectively taken over the drafting of industrial policy; it is claimed she made changes to reports destined for this year’s Cabinet lekgotlas without consulting relevant drafters.
Repeated attempts were made to contact Dobson this week. Messages left on cellular phones were not returned and the allegations were forwarded to her through a colleague, without response.
Sources say a decision to implement the cross-cutting teams was taken last Monday, involving the deployment of officials known as “customer-relations managers” in all divisions.
The managers will report to a customer interface located within Trade and Investment South Africa, a division concerned with trade and investment promotion, and designed to interact with the Department of Trade and Industry’s “South Africa’s economic citizens”. Staff in the divisions will now report to the managers in addition to deputy directors general a move seen as a further attempt to bypass these officials.
A departmental source said top management held a workshop in Pretoria two weeks ago where a change management psychologist rammed home the message over three and half hours that staff should adapt to the new system or leave. The same theme is said to have been proclaimed by Ruiters at a meeting called to tell staff they must report to Dobson.
Molefe, transferred from Trade and Investment South Africa, is to head the cross-cutting teams. Departmental sources say she has instructed staff to reapply for their positions, all of which are under review, and told them that they need “attitude, not skills” to retain their jobs.
Responding, Ruiters said that he, Dobson and Molefe had “collectively decided not to respond to each specific question” as they were “without foundation and concerned interpersonal dynamics”.
He then said that the Mail & Guardian had been misinformed “about one of the most exciting transformation projects being undertaken in the public service”, he said it had satisfied employment equity targets and set new priorities, including black economic empowerment.
Ruiters also complains that no staff member had made use of internal grievance procedures. However, a former Department of Trade and Industry official told the M&G: “It is about time that someone exposed what is going on there.”