Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has refused to apologise for his appointment last year of Gauteng Health Head Lesiba Malotana despite suspending him recently for failing his lifestyle audit.
Responding to my questions at yesterday’s sitting of the Gauteng Legislature, he said that Malotana would remain on precautionary suspension until the SIU completed its comprehensive forensic investigation in this matter.
He noted that Malotana had challenged his suspension, and the court found against him as the SIU report had “believable allegations of serious misconduct”, therefore suspending him was “the only logical and rational outcome” of the available evidence.
The warning signs, however, were already there when Lesufi appointed Malotana as Head of Department in June last year as the SIU were investigating him for allegedly sharing R10 million in bribes with two other officials to influence tenders.
Lesufi’s defence is that Malotana has not been charged with anything, and he cannot act on hearsay.
But this ignores the risk in appointing someone being investigated for serious wrongdoing.
The problem now is that Malotana will probably be suspended on full pay for a long time before the SIU finalises its report. This is unsatisfactory as the department needs a permanent head who is highly competent and ethical to undo years of mismanagement and corruption scandals.
Patients in badly run Gauteng hospitals are paying the price for Lesufi’s poor judgement in appointing the department’s top position which he is too arrogant to admit was an avoidable mistake.
A DA-led administration would have rigorous selection procedures to appoint the best people, including background checks, so that service delivery is optimised.