Marian Shinn, the Democratic Alliance’s shadow minister of communications, has called on the South African minister to be “fired”, following Dina Pule’s continued “cronyism and self-enrichment”.
Shinn believes president Jacob Zuma has no choice but to fire Pule, minister of communications.
Shinn said: “The president can no longer sit back and make a mockery of the South African public by allowing minister Pule to stay in cabinet.”
Shinn referred to a report in the Sunday Independent, which claimed Pule had handpicked Gugu Duda to fill the position of chief financial officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
Pule was also accused of unduly influencing the board’s decision.
“Duda in turn promised her former colleague, Nomakhaya Malebane, the position of deputy as Duda herself admitted that she did not have sufficient financial managerial experience,” said Shinn.
“Duda was suspended in September for signing off a ZAR3 million (US$326,000) sponsorship deal for the new controversial ICT Indaba which benefitted Minister Pule’s boyfriend Mr Phosane Mngqibisa to the tune of ZAR6 million (US$652,000),” she added.
Shinn outlined several reasons why Pule should be fired. The first was the ICT scandal which involved Mngqibisa, the second was the “awarding Sentech – and indirectly Nagravision – the contract to install the control system in the locally assembled set-top boxes to further enrich her boyfriend, at the expense of an existing agreement with e.tv and SABC. The courts found minister Pule’s action unlawful”.
Other reasons included: “The killing of the Telkom-KT Corporation deal that promised to set Telkom on a path to technological excellence and financial growth, the disruption of Telkom’s AGM and, through her last minute changes to the board elections, temporarily crippled its board’s operations.”
Lastly Shinn said the “undue interference in SABC board’s appointment processes of SABC executives,” was also a problem.
“The minister’s 16 months in office have been characterised by her putting her own closed, crony circles above the best interests of the ICT sector.
“It is high time that she be shown the door and that it be done without any delay. South Africans cannot be expected to wait any longer while this looting of her department continues,” said Shinn in conclusion.
