Northern Cape businesswoman Maud Dikgetsi was adamant this week that she had done nothing wrong by doing business with the Northern Cape government while her husband was a provincial minister.
Dikgetsi also insisted no conflict of interest could arise in such a situation. She emphasised that she was only empowering herself ”as an African businesswoman, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination”.
”It is my concerted view that in the main there is nothing wrong with politicians’ spouses or ex-spouses, doing or having conducted business with government,” she said. ”I do not ‘feel compromised’ by doing business with [the] government while married or being a former wife to an MEC, neither do I think nor feel it is ethically incorrect.”
Dikgetsi added that it would be manifestly undemocratic and unconstitutional to discriminate against spouses of ministers.
”I have no intention whatsoever to sever any business with a government that I have entered into social contract with, for the eradication of poverty and the creation of jobs and empowerment of women such as myself.”
Dikgetsi said that spouses of members of Cabinet and members of the executive councils are entitled, like other citizens, to the full and equal enjoyment of the rights and freedoms in the Bill of Rights, including the right to freely choose their trade, occupation or profession.
She added that it was common cause that the government is the largest and most reliable client of any business person, and that the private sector was ”pale, male and yet to transform”.
Barring her from doing business with the state would, ”amount to direct unfair discrimination, on the grounds of their marital status”.
Dikgetsi said that all her contracts with the government were ”to the best of my recollection … in accordance with systems which are fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective”.
On her private business partnership with Thabo Makweya, the minister in charge of the provincial department through which she received contracts, Dikgetsi said it was not inappropriate to partner a former provincial minister after ”according to you, benefiting from his department in the past”.
”I am not aware of any piece of legislation, common law rule or even customary law in our country that prohibits a former MEC from associating, whether for business or not, with any particular person or group of persons,” she said.
Dikgetsi’s husband, Pakes Dikgetsi, also said he saw nothing wrong with his former wife doing business with the government when she was still married to him.
”A spouse is first and foremost a citizen of South Africa long before he or she becomes a wife or a husband. Therefore, the spouse has the right to participate in business with [the] government,” he said.
”As long as the right procedures are followed and it complies with legislation, there is nothing that prohibits spouses from pursuing business interests with [the] government.”
However, he conceded that the issue had to be approached ”with sensitivity” as ”it might create problems in the eyes of some people about credibility”.
Despite repeated attempts over the period of a week, Thabo Makweya could not be contacted.