/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union has received with utter dismay and disappointment the news that Faith Muthambi has been appointed by the President as the new Minister of Public Service and Administration. We wish to put it on record that we do not support the President’s decision in this regard and we firmly believe that it is ill-timed, ill-informed and defies all laws of logic.

As a Union that represents over 70 % of education workers in this country, we have played our part over the last few years to help develop and sustain labour peace in the sector. We are thus shocked that against this back ground, the President appoints an individual who had spectacularly failed in her previous portfolio into the Public Service and Administration Department.

It is under Minister Faith Muthambi that the public broadcaster the SABC limped from one crisis to another. It moved from one failed court battle to the next, had an almost non-existent governance structure and made a good case study for a failed state entity under her watch. Amongst others, she failed to ensure that South Africa met its digital migration deadline so that there can be faster broadband services in the country; this was one of her key deliverables in the previous portfolio.

Despite the dismal failures in as far as some of her key deliverables were concerned, the President took a decision to reward her with a move to the Public Service and Administration. This is a department that is tasked with ensuring that there are cordial relations at all times between the state and its employees. Ultimately, it is tasked with ensuring that there is service delivery to our people as envisaged by the National Development Plan.

The decision by the President indicates that we have a government that rewards mediocrity and that there are no consequences for those who fail to deliver. The President through this bizarre decision to make such an appointment has failed to show any appreciation and sensitivity for labour peace in the public service. He has essentially taken one of the worst performing Ministers in the current administration and given her the task to be one of the key drivers of the developmental state agenda, a task which she will most likely fail in given her dismal track record.  

What is even more shocking is that the President appoints Faith Muthambi into the Public Service as the three year salary agreement between ourselves and the employer reaches an end point, this is a phase during which we are consulting our members on their demands from 2018 and we believe that by appointing an under-performing Minister, the President has spit on the faces of all public servants. It is our strong view that the President has abused his constitutional prerogative to appoint ministers, has instead used it for internal factional battles and not to promote a developmental state. The President uses efficiency and effectiveness to appoint the ministers. The President should have read the judgement in the recent SASSA case where the Chief Justice lambasted Minister Bathabile Dlamini, he suggested that she had displayed “absolute incompetence” and further said she failed in her duties by not finding out that SASSA could not pay grants sooner.
Clearly the President whilst exercising his prerogative should have known that competence has to do with efficiency and effectiveness.

The President in exercising his prerogative must always know that it also has to do with decency, respect and integrity. We are concerned by the reports that the components of the tripartite alliance were not even consulted when the reshuffling decision was taken. As part of the Alliance through COSATU we want to make it clear that we do not vote for the President but for the ANC into power. We supported the incumbent to become the President as he appeared at the time to respect the ANC as an organization and the alliance. He gave an impression that he would have an open door policy and consult them at all times when making key decisions. We abhorred the abuse of the Presidential prerogative then when it was abused by his predecessor and we still abhor it now as abused by him.

He remains a deployee of the ANC himself and his inclination to undermine the alliance must not be tolerated. Decency and love are amongst the key attributes of comrades and leaders of any revolution. Destroying cadres of the movement through the guise of prerogatives will serve to demoralize gifted cadres and frustrate any revolution to achieve its historical mission. Organizations elect and should be led by collectives and not individuals. Cult of personality destroyed many revolutions in the past. The “strong and big man” mentality should be challenged lest we degenerate and be judged cruelly by history.

George Orwell once warned us and said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We will never be silent when the public service is plunged into chaos by the appointment of an incompetent Minister. SADTU will not stand by and be silent spectators because our in action will constitute action and being an accomplice.

Issued By SADTU