DA to ask Ethics Committee to investigate Lindiwe Zulu

Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Bridget Masango MP.

The DA will request Parliament's Ethics Committee to investigate the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, for recent revelations in the media that she engaged in fraudulent behaviour in order to favour an associate of hers for the position of director-general (DG) of the Department of Social Development (DSD).

According to City Press, Minister Zulu lowered the required qualifications and customised the criteria for the position to fit acting DG Linton Mchunu when it was advertised last year. Had it not been for the outcry and intervention of Social Development Deputy Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu and Nehawu, Minister Zulu would have succeeded in her cadre deployment attempt.

The DA supports Nehawu's call to President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Minister Zulu - although experience have taught us that the President will never place the good of the country above protecting his own interest in the ANC.

We believe Minister Zulu has transgressed the following sections of the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, which states that Members must:

• Act on all occasions in accordance with the public trust placed in them (Section 4.1.3);
• Discharge their obligations, in terms of the Constitution, to Parliament and the public at large, by placing the public interest above their own interests (Section 4.1.4);
• Maintain public confidence and trust in the integrity of Parliament and thereby engender the respect and confidence that society needs to have in Parliament as a representative institution (Section 4.1.5).

Minister Zulu clearly only had her own interest and that of her comrade, Mchunu, at heart when she shamelessly altered the requirements of the position of DG. According to the article, the appointment panel received detailed information on how the Minister disregarded and skewed recruitment and selection processes in favour of Mchunu, as well as reasons which should have precluded his appointment. This all seems to have been ignored by the panel - Minister Zulu, the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, Minister in the Presidency, Maropene Ramokgopa, and DG in the Department of Small Business Development, Lindokuhle Mkhumane.

We hope that the Ethics Committee will hold Minister Zulu to account. Her contempt for rules and processes that govern employment processes does not only impact her and her crony - the poor and vulnerable South Africans she is mandated to serve will bear the brunt of the fall out when the inevitably poor-run Department fails to provide the services they need.