/ 26 October 2008

‘Why was I shifted, Kgalema?’

President Kgalema Motlanthe will this week face the first political storm of his short career as head of state after his deputy controversially signed a Cabinet minute that will see the directors general of the Correctional Services Department and the Department of Sports and Recreation, swapping jobs.

The Mail & Guardian has established that Deputy President Baleka Mbete signed the document on Wednesday, ordering prisons boss Vernie Petersen and Sports and Recreation director general Xoliswa Sibeko to change portfolios from Monday.

The government is yet to make an official announcement on the decision.

Petersen told the M&G on Sunday that, although he ‘in principle” agrees to move to the Department of Sports and Recreation, he is still awaiting a meeting with Motlanthe to ‘discuss the terms of such a move”.

‘I can confirm that I was informed by Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi about the decision to swap me and the DG of sport,” Petersen said.

He wouldn’t speculate on possible reasons for the move, but has indicated that he would ask Motlanthe to explain the decision.

Motlanthe is returning back to South Africa on Sunday after attending the extraordinary summit of the African Peer Review Forum (APRF) in Cotonou, Benin.

Since taking over the running of the beleaguered prisons department in mid-2007, Petersen has publicly been knocking heads with Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, who two months ago warned him in a letter that ‘something must break” if they cannot ‘trust and work together in the department”.

The public spats included:

  • Petersen reporting Balfour to former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and to Parliament’s ethics committee for allegedly receiving a discount on a luxury 4X4 vehicle;
  • Balfour investigating Petersen for an alleged drunken outburst at an official departmental function. The claims were never substantiated and no steps were taken against the prisons boss, and
  • Petersen blocking Balfour from extending a multimillion-rand catering tender to controversial service provider Bosasa, that is currently under investigation for tender rigging in the department by the Special Investigating Unit.

Petersen’s transfer has already been linked to his strenuous relationship with Balfour.

‘This is a victory for Balfour, but a loss for the department. Vernie [Petersen] was cleaning up the department. But he [Balfour] was lobbying intensely to get rid of him,” a department insider told the M&G.

The Democratic Alliance agrees. According James Selfe, the DA’s spokesperson on correctional services, Petersen’s transfer is directly related to the Bosasa tender brawl.

‘That’s why he was moved. You can quote me on that. I’m 99% sure this is why it [the transfer] is happening. He was cleaning up the department.”

In a statement released by Selfe, he lauded Petersen for his fight against corruption in the department.

‘Mr Petersen’s tenure in the department was characterised by an uncompromising insistence on compliance to procedures, policies and the law. As a result the performance of the department improved appreciably. Needless to say, this rigour set him against others in the department for whom the culture of corruption was deep-seated.

‘It is also well known that Mr Petersen’s insistence on proper procedure brought him into conflict with the minister, particularly on the issue of the renewal of a catering contract for the Department of Correctional Services. It would be a tragedy if his transfer to the Department of Sport was in any way connected to this disagreement.”

Meanwhile, the Pretoria News reported on Saturday that Sibeko claims she had not been informed of her imminent move to correctional services.

Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile placed Sibeko on special leave when he refused to give her a permanent contract after her mandatory 12-month probation ended in August.

Stofile’s spokesperson Lerato Mogorosi told the Pretoria News: ‘The minister informed us that the DG has been redeployed. We don’t know where she is going.” Stofile would make a formal announcement on Monday.

Tensions between Stofile and Sibeko allegedly heightened after South Africa’s poor performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

In a recent interview with the M&G, researcher Lukas Muntingh of the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative lauded Petersen’s first year as prisons boss, calling him a ‘breath of fresh air” after the departure of embattled former national commissioner Linda Mti.

‘A key feature of Petersen’s performance has been his more open approach to dealing with fundamental problems in the department. He is the first commissioner to not only acknowledge, but also consult civil society on sexual violence in prisons and the high number of unnatural deaths in prisons.

‘This departure from denialism, characterising previous commissioners, is remarkable. Recent actions relating to corruption allegedly involving senior officials, including suspending two, have also confirmed his commitment to rooting out corruption in the department.

‘For Petersen the challenge lies in the extent to which he can trust his senior management team — are they behind him or will the network of entrenched bureaucrats spin the web for his downfall?

‘All indications are that he is hard at work to unravel the deep-rooted interests that have caused this department so much misery. This is a high-risk endeavour and he had already lost the support of his political head [Balfour],” Muntingh said.