Wisani wa ka Ngobeni
In what senior government officials have described as an “onslaught against young, dynamic director generals”, Thami Sokutu’s name has been added to a growing list in conflict with their ministers.
Departmental sources claim that Sokutu, the Director General for the Department of Public Works, is being pressured to quit his job by his minister, Stella Sigcau. The minister, they allege, believes that he persuaded the Mail & Guardian to give her an “F” symbol in the paper’s 1999 annual report card.
Sokutu’s debacle follows closely on that of foreign affairs’ Sipho Pityana, transport’s Sipho Msikinya and local government’s Zam Titus. The latter two have been redeployed to lower-ranking positions, while Pityana has quit for the private sector.
Tensions between the Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and her Director General, Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, also came to the surface this week when the two contradicted each other publicly in their response to the decision by the Gauteng provincial government to roll-out an HIV/Aids programme for pregnant mothers. And the lack of cooperation between Director General of the Department of Home Affairs Billy Masetlha and his minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, over the long-awaited Immigration Bill remains unresolved.
In the case of Sokutu, departmental sources said the problems allegedly raised by Sigcau about her director general are not largely related to his performance at public works.
Instead, the sources insist, the key accusation, which has been blamed for the deteriorating relationship between Sigcau and Sokutu, involves the 1999 M&G’s report card.
The report card had suggested that, because of her bad showing at the time, Sigcau needed to be sacked or given a diplomatic posting to Albania. In contrast it said that Sokutu, who joined public works from the Department of Education in February 1999, was a competent director general and suggested that his appointment had saved Sigcau’s political bacon.
Departmental sources said that this assertion angered Sigcau and marked the start of a rocky relationship between the minister and her director general, with Sigcau claiming shortly after the report card was published that Sokutu “had gone behind her back and influenced the M&G to give her the low rating”.
But their relationship apparently has worsened in the past few months. The minister, said departmental sources, allegedly ignores everything Sokutu does in the department and hardly communicates key decisions to him. He intends to leave the department before the end of his three-year contract in August. He had an option to extend the contract to five years.
A former academic, Sokutu has been praised by some senior government officials for turning the public works department around. He has also been complimented for instilling professionalism among staff members within the department.
However, said a source, “[Sigcau] really wants to get rid of him and she does things to deliberately frustrate him. He [Sokutu] has realised that he cannot work with her anymore. He is so disgruntled.”
Asked for comment, Sokutu referred all queries to the minister’s spokesperson Mariette Ebersohn, who said the allegations were “news” to the minister.
Departmental sources said the Sokutu case has raised fears within government circles of a “systematic removal” of young and effective director generals. Pityana, Titus and Msikinya are used as case studies.
However, the three are not the first to clash with their ministers. In 1997 former director general in the Department of Housing, Billy Cobbett, was sacked by his minister, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, after he asked the auditor general to investigate a multimillion-rand housing project in Mpumalanga. And the problems between Buthelezi and his director general have been on the boil for some time.
Pityana, who apparently found it hard to work with his minister, Nkosazana Zuma, is leaving to join a black empowerment venture at the end of March.
Titus’s five-year contract, which expired last month, was not renewed by his minister Sydney Mufamadi, who apparently believed that Titus lacked the “strategic vision” to steer the department. Titus has been retained in the department, but in a lower position.
Msikinya is being “redeployed” to a post at the South African Maritime Safety Authority, an agency of the Department of Transport, before the end of his five-year contract.