Our journalist was misled by Mayor Msimanga and his staff

One of the drums the Democratic Alliance (DA) likes to beat loudest is that of the ANC’s “cadre deployment” policy, which sees people given government posts because of their party loyalty, ahead of their competence or experience.

So it is, to put it mildly, ironic that DA Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga has made himself guilty of the very “jobs for pals” scenario for which he and his colleagues so roundly and justifiably criticise the government.

Msimanga has offered to resign if it can be proved he broke any rules in facilitating the employment by the city of Marietha Aucamp as his chief of staff. The two go back some way, with her having been involved in DA party work, involving him, for some time before her appointment.

Aucamp was appointed to the position despite the fact that she did not have the required bachelor’s degree and had only a matric certificate. Msimanga sat in on the interview process and gave her one of the highest scores.

Initially, when we approached his office some weeks ago about the issue, Msimanga’s spokesperson assured us the mayor had not been part of any recruitment process. Now, according to Msimanga, the spokesperson was not aware of all the facts when he’d made that comment.

Based on that, and on an assessment that rated Aucamp highly and confirmed she had a BTech degree, we did not pursue the story. So we feel we were misled by the mayor and his staff.

The reality is that the appointment of Aucamp was pushed through, one way or the other. Our conclusion is that the R1.2 million-a-year post was a reward for Aucamp’s loyal service to the DA.

That is not how we should be appointing our senior civil servants. And the DA should understand that people in glass houses should not throw stones.

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