Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Tuesday broke his silence on the impasse over the appointment of his new director-general, saying the issue was not political, but purely administrative.

Buthelezi wants his close aide, Ivan Lambinon, to be appointed to the post, while National Intelligence Agency deputy director-general Barry Gilder is favoured by some of his Cabinet colleagues.

Buthelezi said it was false that the interviewing panel of Cabinet ministers had suggested one name.

"In fact it suggested two, leaving it to me to choose the one to be appointed."
Referring to a weekend news report, Buthelezi denied that a meeting over the impasse had been scheduled for last week with President Thabo Mbeki. Nor had any meeting been cancelled or ever scheduled.

He described as pure fabrication that Cabinet ministers had expressed any view on the matter "which has not yet served before Cabinet".

It was also not true as reported that Cabinet mandated a group of ministers to discuss the issue with him and that he refused to do so, Buthelezi said.

"It is not true that I would object to anyone merely on account of an intelligence background.

"The Department of Intelligence is just another organ of State which I fully respect, and I have no qualms with anyone working there."
Buthelezi accused unnamed individuals of feeding the "press inflammatory, divisive and utterly false information to further his or her own agenda or feather his or her own nest".

"I urge the press not to become an instrument of such operation. This is not a political matter, but purely an administrative one."
Buthelezi said he had acted in what was the best interests of the State and the country.

"I did not let any of my political views cloud my judgement, but I have acted as the law and the Constitution expect of me, and with the sole intention of serving the public interest."
Last month, Buthelezi told reporters he had hoped the matter would have been resolved by November last year, but that there had been some glitches. He had met his Cabinet colleagues on the interviewing panel, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi and Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Ronnie Kasrils.

"There are some problems... I think the minister (public service and administration) is still going to engage the president on the matter. It isn't right for me to give details," he then said.

Speaking at the same briefing, Fraser-Moleketi told reporters that appointments were made according to a particular framework.

"We are working on that, and as Minister Buthelezi said, we are indeed intent to resolve the issue and will try to ensure that it happens as speedily as possible."
She told Sapa: "We need to ensure procedural fairness."
The home affairs department has been without a director-general since June, after Billy Masetlha resigned after months of tension with the minister - Sapa