Sisulu ‘covering up’ the appointments of Simelane and Shaik – DA

In a statement on Monday, the DA said Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisiulu appeared to have attempted a “cover-up” on a decision to hire the controversial Menzi Simelane and Mo Shaik as special advisers on top salaries.

On Friday, their names had been included in a response to a parliamentary question about her ministerial appointments, but she reissued the response following widespread outcry at the news, and “subsequent to the DA having revealed the names of Sisulu’s Ministerial Office and National Rapid Response Task Team (NRRTT) staffers”, said DA MP Emma Louise Powell.

“Minister Sisulu’s revised response omits all names, gradings and positions of those working in both her office and those appointed to the NRRTT. As such, Simelane and Shaik’s names have been removed from information available to the public.”

She alleged that the minister was going to “great lengths to try and cover up the information her office – seemingly erroneously – released”.

Simelane was controversially appointed as National Director of Public Prosecutions in 2009 by then president Jacob Zuma, but this was invalidated by the Constitutional Court, which also questioned Simelane’s “conscientiousness, integrity, and credibility”.

Sisulu also appointed him as a special adviser in 2013 when she was minister of public service and administration.

Shaik recently testified at the Zondo commission into state capture.

Minister Sisulu cited in her revised response about the appointments that “posts in the ministry have been filled as outlined in the Guide for Members of the Executive, otherwise commonly referred to as the Ministerial Handbook”.

Powell said Sisulu was, however, taking the public for fools.

“Not only did the release of staff information on Friday indicate a potentially deliberate attempt to expose her – from within her own ministry – but her attempts to today retract this information from the public space exposes her predicament.

“She was caught red-handed, employing and appointing individuals with numerous shadows hanging over their names, and now that the public has been made aware of it, she has rapidly attempted to remove access to this information from the public.”

Powell accused Sisulu of staffing a “political war room at the taxpayer’s expense” by hiring “a revolutionary in Chumani Maxwele, a lawyer in Simelane, an intelligence operative in Shaik, and an ex-opposition party leader in Thami Ka Plaatjie”.

Powell said it would be difficult to imagine Sisulu being able to handle the drought crisis, “when she is clearly preoccupied with covering up the grossly inept appointments to both her office and the NRRTT”.

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