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The Public Protector has reportedly recommended that President Zuma consider "serious action" against Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka for misspending government money.

President Zuma has until 3 October to respond to the Public Protector’s report. This is his opportunity to show more courage in dealing with an errant Minister than he has done with those implicated in the SAPS lease deals.

The Public Protector’s report confirms that Shiceka travelled to Switzerland under "false pretences" to visit his girlfriend who was jailed there for being a drug mule. President Zuma was apparently "misled" by Shiceka who told him that he made the trip to gain knowledge about how to handle the 2010 Football World Cup.

President Zuma was even unwittingly drawn into extending the deception when, during Presidential question time in Parliament on 13th September 2011, the President defended Shiceka's trip to Switzerland. He echoed Shiceka’s position, saying that it was an official trip undertaken due to, in the President's words, "his new role as the chairperson of the host cities under the 2010 Local Organising Committee."

The Public Protector’s report reveals that Shiceka, who visited his girlfriend twice in prison, lied to the President and he lied to the public. This alone – besides his proven misspending of state funds – is grounds for his dismissal.

The Minister has disrespected the President, Parliament and the public. We believe that the President must act in a way that preserves the integrity of his office and the Ministry of Cooperative Governance.