The Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wants the new provincial government to dispatch director general Gilbert Lawrence, widely regarded as heading an unremittingly untransformed, white-dominated administration.
This comes as the director general’s office stands to gain greater responsibilities. That office, rather than the provincial treasury, is earmarked to drive iKapa Elihlumayo (the growing, sharing Cape), the province’s economic and social development blueprint.
Cosatu’s most recent regional executive meeting called for Lawrence’s removal following a briefing by several public service trade unions. They were “unhappy with [Lawrence’s] conduct in a number of areas”, said one senior official.
The last straw was the suspension of a National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) shop steward on the eve of the April 14 poll allegedly for distributing election pamphlets while off duty.
A provincial government spokesperson said the suspension, after a political party complained, was a “precautionary measure” to finalise an investigation under the public servants’ code of conduct and disciplinary code.
However, it is understood that neither bans political activity outside working hours.
Lawrence was appointed from July 2002 — as a compromise candidate — by the African National Congress-New National Party cooperative government.
He had been acting director general for several months after Niel Barnard, the apartheid National Intelligence Service head, was given his marching orders and a significant cash pay-out.
Cosatu’s demand notwithstanding, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has already indicated that more attention will be paid to employment equity.
His party was “not satisfied with the levels of representativity in the administration”, he said shortly after his nomination as premier-elect.
Even though more black officials have begun working in the provincial government in the two years of ANC-NNP cooperative rule, white males still dominate senior management ranks.