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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today written to KwaZulu-Natal Arts and Culture MEC, Hlengiwe Mavimbela, demanding clarity around the criteria for the appointment of senior staff within her Department. This after a senior Director was allegedly employed without having a matric certificate.

According to the DA’s impeccable source, the individual’s lack of suitable qualifications was recently exposed leading to the termination of his employment.

The DA is not surprised by this revelation. Regrettably, cronyism and nepotism appear to be the basis for employment within KZN’s ANC-led government Departments, while qualifications have been thrown out the door.

This is evident from the many dysfunctional provincial departments which are on the verge of collapse – a fact which speaks directly to the calibre and capability of people employed. This sad state of affairs is also due to the fact that people are being employed without being thoroughly screened.

The DA expects a full report on this matter from MEC Mavimbela. Amongst the issues which she must clarify are;

- The basic requirements for a Directorship within her Department

- Whether there has been any kind of investigation into how this individual was hired in the first place and;

- Whether any form of action will be taken against those who employed him.

At the end of the day, it is the people of KZN who suffer most when it comes to ANC cadre deployment and administrative bungling as this has a direct impact on service delivery.

The DA expects the MEC to come clean around this issue. Moving forward, we also expect her to enforce measures to ensure that the credentials of all staff employed within her Department are checked and authenticated to ensure that such an incident is not repeated.

Issued by The DA