The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has learnt that the Head of Department for Infrastructure Development and Property Management, Bethuel Netshiswinzhe has left the department allegedly as a result of undue pressure being placed on him by the MEC Tasneem Motara.
The DA has been reliably informed that Netshiswinzhe who has been in the senior position for many years and has seen four MECs come and go, decided to vacate the position despite being asked to extend his contract. In addition, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) has been placed on suspension for unspecified reasons.
Officials have been given strict instructions not to interact with or provide any information to politicians or outsiders which gives rise to a working environment in which the overriding dynamic is one of distrust and suspicion. Officials are simply too afraid to speak up about the arrogant and disrespectful treatment they receive.
Under normal circumstances one would expect the MEC to hold her officials to account if her actions gave rise to an increase in performance, but in this case the treatment of officials is aggressive and unreasonable and the morale and performance of the department is in a downward spiral.
It has long been a bone of contention that people who are appointed as MECs often do not have the requisite levels of expertise to manage their allocated portfolios and the process is nothing but cadre deployment.
The newly appointed MEC has tried to hide her lack of experience and expertise in the infrastructure space behind aggression and arrogance.
She got off to a poor start when she contradicted herself about the need for maintenance of immovable assets. Then, she refused to accept a proposal to outsource the property management function in spite of the fact that the department has hardly any expertise or resources to manage immovable assets worth more than R43 billion. This has given rise to unsafe buildings, property not being maintained and the deterioration of assets.
The DA is calling on the MEC to explain what is going on in her department and come clean about Netshiswinzhe’s departure and the suspension of the CFO.
There is no substitute for expertise and the victims in all of this are the officials and the tax-payers who pay for wastage and inefficiency in government.