DA leader and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen says there will be no purging of directors-general (DGs) in ministries led by his party’s ministers in the Government of National Unity (GNU).
“Where you have DGs that are there on contracts, the contracts will be honoured. Obviously, we are not going in looking to purge anybody.
We will be looking for people who are going to work to achieve the goals of departments, where people are willing to work and not play political games.
I think there is not going to be any problems,” he said.
He made the remarks during an interview with the SABC on the sidelines of the swearing-in of members of the executive on Wednesday.
The contracts of DGs came up in a letter from DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula during the negotiations for ministerial positions.
The DA had demanded that contracts of DGs reporting to their ministers would need to be reconsidered in case they were not amenable to the direction of the party’s ministers. This led to a deadlock in the GNU negotiations.
On Wednesday, Steenhuisen said there would be problems in instances where people interfered politically and played political games.
“The president and I sat down. He explained to me the selection of DGs.
I am comfortable with that process because it will involve ministers when new DGs have to be appointed and it will involve the Public Service Commission and ultimately Cabinet and the president will make the ultimate appointment,” he said.
Asked about conducting forensic investigations in the department, Steenhuisen said that would be done once they get handover reports and see what is in them.
“The starting point will be auditor-general reports, go through them to see what findings and recommendations were made and make sure whether they were implemented. If there are dodgy tenders there, we are committed to a clean and accountable government.
“The president committed to that on Sunday when he made the announcements, that we are to run a clean, open and transparent administration. Certainly, in the departments where the DA will be, there is no room for tender manipulation and those processes must be done in an open and transparent way,” he said.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube also commented on the contracts of the DGs, saying: “We have to abide by the law. The law gives DGs contracts and those are reviewed and renewed.”
Cape Times