SAPS General Fannie Masemola has been served with a summons to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on April 21, in connection with the R360 million SAPS health services tender awarded to Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala's company.
Image: Kopano Tlape / GCIS
The summons issued against South African Police Service (SAPS) Commissioner General Fannie Masemola has raised significant questions about the accountability of heads of departments and the prevalence of corruption within South Africa’s public service.
The National Prosecuting Authority confirmed that Masemola has been served with a summons to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on April 21.
This came after the arrest of 12 senior officers in connection with the R360 million contract that was awarded to the company of businessman Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has since confirmed that Masemola has been charged under Section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
This section places certain responsibilities on heads of departments, including ensuring that a department has effective, efficient, and transparent systems of financial and risk management and internal control.
Those found guilty of an offence can be liable on conviction to a fine, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.
Political analysts have welcomed this development as a long-overdue step in enforcing accountability among those in leadership positions within the public sector.
Political analyst Dirk Kotze said the action against Masemola was something that should have happened a long time ago with all accounting officers in the public service, where there is corruption.
“If they don't have proper systems in place for accountability and preventing corruption, they become co-responsible for it. Although it's not that they benefit from it personally, they have the legal responsibility to make sure that the state does not lose its assets,” said Kotze.
He noted that the previous trends in holding only identified personnel accountable left a crucial gap in responsibility.
“It's not that they are, therefore, accused of corruption per se, but they are accused of not performing their functions properly,” he added.
Another political analyst, Andre Duvenhage, pointed out that despite the well-documented violations of the PFMA across national and provincial departments, political will has often been lacking to address these infractions.
“It is not news that we have a huge problem and it's also not news that there's no action taken by politicians to bring in responsible government,” he said.
Both Kotze and Duvenhage expressed a hope that this summons could mark the beginning of a more extensive process aimed at holding public servants accountable for their actions.
Kotze said the move would send a strong message to directors-general in other departments.
“The national commissioner is effectively the director-general of the Police Department. Other DGs will wake up and say, well, ‘if it can happen to them, it can happen to me also. So, I must be much more diligent and much stricter in my own department’.
“That will obviously improve the quality of public service and the quality of the language in the different state departments, which is what we definitely need,” Duvenhage said.
Kotze also said it was a wake-up call for managers at different levels in the public sector that they can't close their eyes for what is happening relatively close to them.
“Some of this is already happening in the private sector with private companies. The directors of companies are now also liable for mismanagement in the companies individually, not collectively as a board of directors, but it can be individually held responsible. I think it was time that it also happens in the public sector. So hopefully this is the beginning of a process that's much more widespread in this,” he said.
Duvenhage’s concern lies in whether this newfound momentum will be sustained, particularly given the historical context where political connections sometimes shield individuals from accountability said it is supposed to send a strong message.
“The interesting fact is how they are going to deal with this matter. Does the political will exist in dealing with this?” Duvenhage asked.
mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za