Deputy President Baleka Mbete has emerged as a key role player in the removal of corruption-busting prisons director general Vernie Petersen from his job.
The Mail & Guardian has reliably learned that Mbete’s involvement in the controversial swap of Petersen and sports director general Xoliswa Sibeko went far beyond her signing of a presidential minute, while she was acting president, on Wednesday last week.
With President Kgalema Motlanthe out of the country, Petersen and Sibeko were informed that they should vacate their positions and report to their new offices on Monday.
The move was slammed last week by ANC MPs, opposition parties and interest groups, such as the National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders, who have lauded Petersen’s no-nonsense approach to fighting corruption and maladministration in the beleaguered correctional services department. He was in the job for less than two years.
It has also infuriated Parliament’s portfolio committee on correctional services, with ANC MP and committee chairperson Dennis Bloem saying he will treat Petersen’s transfer ”as a rumour” until Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour or Motlanthe officially informs the committee thereof by letter. The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), which represents most prison warders, called for Balfour’s immediate resignation on Wednesday.
Petersen told the M&G that, although he had agreed to move ”in principle”, he is still awaiting a meeting with Motlanthe to ”discuss the terms of such a move”.
Senior government sources last week highlighted Mbete’s role in removing Petersen from correctional services and Sibeko from sport.
”She [Mbete] has been dealing with this matter basically from the day she was appointed deputy president,” said one source. Mbete was allegedly lobbied by Balfour and Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile to push through the swap.
Stofile this week denied playing any role in Sibeko’s shift, while Balfour failed to respond to the M&G‘s questions.
Balfour announced Sibeko’s appointment as national prisons commissioner on Tuesday, calling the move ”normal practice in government”. He quoted three examples of directors general previously swapping positions.
But a senior government source suggested that Motlanthe, who was on official visits to Swaziland, Uganda and Benin, was not in the loop.
”He [Motlanthe] didn’t know [of the transfer],” the source told the M&G. ”They [Balfour and Stofile] have been communicating with her [Mbete] about the issue rather than the president.”
Asked whether Mbete consulted Motlanthe before signing off the transfer, presidency spokesperson Dumisani Mahlasela said Mbete carried out ”all the necessary consultations” before approving the move.
”This has been a process that started a long time ago between the ministers and the department [of public service and administration] and the signing needed to be done. The documents were handed to her [Mbete] at a time when the president was not around,” Mahlasela said.
Former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi told the M&G last week that problems in Balfour’s relationship with Petersen had been under discussion for a while.
”Quite extensive work was done on it — I met with [Balfour] and [Petersen] and it was also under discussion with the former president [Thabo Mbeki]. To say nothing was done about it is wrong; we were awaiting reports in this regard before we were going to take it further,” she said.
Since taking over the running of prisons in mid-2007 Petersen has publicly locked horns with Balfour, who, two months ago, warned him in a letter that ”something must break” if they could not ”trust and work together in the department”.
This came after Petersen blocked Balfour from extending a multi-million-rand catering tender to controversial service provider Bosasa, which the special investigating unit is investigating for allegedly rigging correctional services tenders.
Stofile and Sibeko’s relationship has been strained since the minister refused to appoint her permanently at the end of her 12-month probation period, which ended in August.
A second government source told the M&G that Petersen and Sibeko ran the risk of being dismissed because of a breakdown of trust between them and their political heads. ”But they [Petersen and Sibeko] are valued as heads of departments. They are competent, so you would rather move them than discredit them by firing them.”