OTHER'S HAVE DONE FAR WORSE

This is Tuesday 17th post.

I don't think that the Statement "Others have done far worse" actually even gets to the tip of the ice berg. Surely it should be something like . . . and what are we going to do about it?

Why has the President got so much power? Where are the checks and balances that should be in place to prevent him from keeping those that should have left a long time ago and make him keep those that should be kept?

How can this be a truelly democratic society if he plays with a stacked deck and then does not give reasons for doing so? Perhaps these are the questions that need to be asked and answered!

Others have done far worse
Adriaan Basson and Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya
10 August 2007 07:30


President Thabo Mbeki does not have to give reasons for firing his ministers, according to spokesperson Mukoni Ratitshanga. Presumably neither does he have to let the rest of the public in when wearing his ANC hat and getting rid of party officials. For if he was bound to explain himself, he would have to say why a senior minister such as Mosoiua Lekota continues to serve in his cabinet when he failed to declare his directorship of a winery and shares he had in a petroleum distribution company. For his omission, he was found guilty of contravening the Code of Conduct for MPs, given a written reprimand by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee and fined seven days’ pay.

Lekota then investigated why defence force officials spent R4- to R5-million to charter a plane to fly Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Britain for an official visit. This was after Mlambo-Ngcuka and her family had flown to the United Arab Emirates for a five-day holiday at the end of December in the SA Air Force Falcon 900 jet reserved for VIPs.

Then there’s Linda Mti, the former commissioner of correctional services, whose business links with companies that generously benefited from his department were exposed last year. Mti, a senior member of the ANC and former leader of the party in the Eastern Cape, was not even questioned by Mbeki, who has the power to hire and fire directors general.

National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has admitted to being friends with Glen Agliotti, a man who freely admits to being part of the murder of Brett Kebble and other dubious characters, yet Mbeki has seen fit to have him lead the police.

Last month, it emerged that Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba had spent taxpayers’ money on personal expenses such as flowers for his wife and his mother-in-law.