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The Chief of Staff in the office of the Gauteng MEC for Treasury and Economic Development, Lebogang Maile, Mr Collin Pitso, was implicated in an infographic published under the title “Web of Patronage." In it, Pitso is alleged to have received R6.5 million from corruption accused, Edwin Sodi. The graphic originally appeared in the Sunday Times on 4th October 2020 and resurfaced on X yesterday. Mr Sodi had been arrested for alleged corruption, and his trial is still ongoing. Indeed, the implications against Mr Sodi in the Zondo Commission’s reports are clear.

The DA in Gauteng has written to the MEC calling on him to investigate the conduct of his Chief of Staff. We are dealing with a matter of public trust, and R6.5 million buys a lot of influence.

As MEC, Maile has enormous powers when it comes to the employment incidents of his staff, as per the legislation about public service. The Public Service Regulations will have required Mr Pitso to declare his interests in respect of this matter. In the infographic, Mr Sodi does not deny the transaction but avers that the money went to Mr Pitso’s father. Even if Mr Sodi is correct in saying that the money went to Mr Pitso’s father and not to Mr Pitso himself, the regulations clearly require declarations of the interests of close relatives and not just personal interests.

Accordingly, we wrote to the MEC, calling on him to act. Specifically, we asked him to investigate whether Mr Pitso correctly declared his interests in this regard. We await confirmation whether he will do so.

The public expects its government officials to be above reproach. A failure to declare these interests would constitute material misconduct. We do not doubt that the Public Service Commission (PSC) would concur. If Maile fails to respond satisfactorily, we will approach the PSC to confirm that the declarations of interest it received from the provincial government in the relevant period did or did not include declarations from Mr Pitso and whether he did or did not declare his or his father’s interests in this regard.

We have not yet received any response. It is early days, but this specific MEC has a habit of not responding, either to us or the official questions posed in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

A DA government would give Mr Pitso seven days to prove he correctly submitted a declaration of interest and demand an explanation of the R6.5 million transaction. This matter would be raised with the PSC, and a negative finding would result in immediate consequences. We cannot dilly-dally when dealing with allegations of corruption. Perhaps this is why Lesufi’s ANC doesn’t want the DA in the provincial government.

Issued by Mike Moriarty MPL - DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Economic Development