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We welcome Minister Sicelo Shiceka’s return to health, because now he can explain to us about the money he misspent.

Although he has denied that he wasted money visiting a girlfriend serving a sentence for being a drug mule in Switzerland, he has admitted to other misspending which is clearly a misappropriation of state funds.

When these allegations first came to light he defended his putting up a Mr Mtambo – variously described as a “father figure”, a “spiritual advisor” and a sangoma – and Mr Mtambo’s wife at the ultra-luxurious One & Only Hotel in Cape Town, at a cost to the fiscus of R28,000. Minister Shiceka claimed that he was allowed to do this in terms of the ministerial handbook.

A reading of that handbook shows no justification for giving “father figures” stays at top hotels at the South African public's expense.

An indicator of the government’s lack of credibility on this issue is how the story has changed. Shiceka was sent on sick leave in February. Now he says he’s been playing tennis and travelling and is ready to return to work but can only do so when the Public Protector’s report on the allegations of misconduct against him is received. This raises two questions:

•He was booked off work because he was sick. Why is his return now dependent on the Public Protector’s report?

•If he is well enough to play tennis and travel overseas, why is he not well enough to work?

Since February he’s been drawing his ministerial salary of over R100,000 per month.

The fact that the Public Protector is investigating allegations of misconduct against the Minister does not mean he is freed from explaining his conduct. His sickness has been used to shield him from having to account for his behaviour for several months. Now that he is well again, the Minister – and President Zuma in parliament yesterday – are hiding behind the slow processes of the Public Protector’s investigation.

Shiceka owes South Africans an explanation, and President Zuma owes us some action.