Blowing the whistle on malicious whistle-blowers

It’s clear that there is a fight-back campaign underway against key programmes that have been developed and rolled out to help turn around the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) and stamp out corruption.

The core of the campaign is an anonymous dossier, named Public Works: The Lost Jewel of Government Excellence, which is doing the rounds, and makes allegations against former DPWI Minister Thulas Nxesi, his former deputy Jeremy Cronin and against more than 20 former and current senior managers of the department.

The 44-page dossier alleges malfeasance, irregular appointments and a need to investigate certain programmes and people.

Those accused are mostly current and former senior executives of DPWI’s Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE), whose operations represent the bulk of the Department’s procurement spend.

In an attempt to maximise impact, baseless allegations are also made against the president, Deputy Chief Justice, other ministers, officials from other government departments and state institutions as well as private sector officials, the Public Service Commission and the Auditor-General of South Africa.

Given the objectives behind this campaign, we believe the campaign is not only a DPWI matter, but a matter of national significance with government-wide implications. It aims to undermine the president’s programme and casts aspersions on the Presidency, the ruling party, the SACP, the Zondo Commission, National Treasury, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the Auditor-General of South Africa, the Public Service Commission and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Allegations are also made against some large private sector corporates.

We have brought these matters to the president’s attention first as concerned citizens and second as senior public servants, as the dossier is clearly part of a nefarious plan to threaten the objectives of an effective developmental state.

To build an effective state will require delivering a mortal blow to the remnants of corruption whenever they raise their ugly head anywhere in the public service. Only then will there be a conducive climate that will attract and retain the most talented, ethical and high-performing individuals from all spheres of our society.

We decided to write to the president on 25 July 2019 to bring the matter to his urgent attention. We also approached the Hawks and the SIU on 23 July to present ourselves for any investigation that may be deemed necessary in response to the dossier. We have communicated a clear message to these law enforcement agencies that we are available to be subjected to scrutiny.

Because the “Jewel” dossier alleges malfeasance, irregular appointments and calls for action against certain programmes and persons, it is our view that these matters must be investigated without delay.

In our letter to the president, we have also highlighted the worrying trend of professionals, mostly black professionals, being forced to resign, being threatened and harassed as well as a systematic and recurring attempt to tarnish their reputations. This is particularly the case when it comes to officials who are tasked with the implementation of key programmes to advance the objectives of the National Development Plan, the fight against fraud and corruption and the tightening of the internal control environment.

Enough is enough! A stop has to be put this practice.

More worrying is that the dossier is also loaded with racist and ethnic connotations and introduces vicious attacks on women — with allegations of infidelity in order to advance their careers levelled at numerous senior women managers in the department. This potentially impacts on not only the women’s professional lives, but also their families and relationships.

We believe a transparent investigation is the only way to deal with this matter, as opposed to the clandestine opportunistic approach taken by the faceless author/s of the document.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time such a document has been released. Since 2017, with the change in the executive authority in the department as well as the change in accounting officer, there has been an upsurge in the frequency of these “whistle-blowing” occurrences. As with the current “dossier”, all these were targeting officials associated with the Turnaround programme in the department.

This latest dossier is a rehash and update of an almost similar set of allegations against the same officials which were made in June 2018 and submitted to the Public Service Commission (PSC) as well as the media and other oversight bodies. These allegations were comprehensively responded to by former Minister Nxesi to the PSC and subsequently, the PSC has finalised its work on the matters.

This is possibly why the complainants are now attempting to discredit oversight bodies in their current piece of work.

The activities of those behind the dossier have adverse and destructive consequences on the ability of affected departments and SOEs to execute their mandates and deliver services to the people. This is a transversal problem that needs to be looked into. There is a further impact on the public servants themselves, whereby careers have been wrecked and professional images permanently trashed.

Black professionals in the public service have been the most affected, yet few professionals speak up, thus leaving their careers to chance.

The consequence of this is that in some instances, the most poorly qualified, poorly experienced persons with questionable ethical standards end up occupying the highest echelons of the public service.

This becomes even more concerning in the context of the phase of our democracy and the current state of our economy. If this trend is not adequately and timeously arrested, key departments will collapse — risking the eventual collapse of the state and eventually our democracy. DM

Paul Serote is the former head of the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE); Jacob Maroga is the current acting head of the entity; and Cox Mokgoro is the former CFO of the department. They are among the five who handed over information to the Hawks and the SIU, and sent a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa.