Cape Town - The Public Protector has called on President Jacob Zuma to consider taking action against Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka after making several findings against the minister.
Public Protector Advocate Thuli Madonsela released her report on allegations of abuse of public funds by the minister at a briefing in Parliament on Friday. She further handed over copies of her detailed report to the co-chairpersons of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests.
The report is a response to complaints lodged with her office in April in connection with the alleged violations by the minister. The complaints originated from a newspaper article alleging that Shiceka had misappropriated public funds for his own benefit.
The allegations made against Shiceka included that he had incurred R367 000 in respect of travelling and accommodation for him and his personal assistant to visit Switzerland; R640 00 in one year in respect of accommodation for him and his immediate staff at the One & Only Hotel in Cape Town, as well as R160 000 in travelling expenditure for a period over eight months for his family members, among others.
Madonsela made five findings against the minister.
She found that the total expenditure incurred by the State in respect of his visit to Switzerland amounted to over R540 000, not R367 000 and that the propose of the visit did not relate to the 2010 FIFA World Cup but rather to visit a woman at a prison in Berne.
This constituted a violation of the Executive Ethics Code as well as the Public Protector Act and the Constitution.
"Mr Shiceka deliberately and inadvertently misled the President when he presented his purpose of his visit to Switzerland," she said, adding that he had travelled to Switzerland under false pretences.
"His actions were accordingly unlawful and constituted maladministration, dishonesty in respect of public money and improper conduct."
She also said that the expenditure for the trip constituted a financial loss to the department as it was of no benefit or any value to the state.
Madonsela said that Shiceka's stay at One and Only Hotel in Cape Town in 2009 was also a breach of the Executive Ethics Code and the Constitution.
"Although the Ministerial Handbook provides that members of the Cabinet can be accommodated in any hotel during official travels, it also requires of them to act responsibly, in good faith and in a manner that is consistent with their office.
"By staying in one of the most expensive hotels during his official visits to Cape Town, repeatedly, before and after an official residence was allocated to him, and without requesting his Private Office to take steps to ensure the expenditure incurred by the department is reasonable and justifiable in terms of his responsibility to act in good faith and with integrity, Mr Shiceka violated the provisions of the Executive Ethics Code and the Constitution," said Madonsela.
She said the same applied to his private stay at Lesotho Sun Hotel in March when he was on sick leave.
Among her suggested remedial action to be taken, Madonsela said Zuma should consider taking "serious action" against the minister.
She also suggested that the Director-General in the minister's department should take action to recover the expenditure incurred by the department and that urgent steps be taken to ensure that the investigation into the alleged abuse of Shiceka's travelling privileges is concluded and appropriate measures taken to deal with its findings and recommendations.
The co-chairpersons of the Joint Committee on Ethics and Members' Interests thanked Madonsela for her report. They said they took the matter seriously and would communicate the outcome of their deliberations on it to the public.
