Public Service Commission: DA receives apartheid-style censored report
Two and a half years after my initial request, I have finally received from the Public Service Commission (PSC) a report into an investigation we requested into the CEO of the Eastern Cape Hospital Complex, Mr Luvuyo Mosana. The complex incorporates the notorious Cecilia Makiwane and Frere hospitals. All the most relevant parts of the report have been blacked out, a tactic reminiscent of the apartheid era. And so, the farce that is 'transparency' in the various departments of health continues unabated.
A copy of the report is available on request.
South Africa is currently in the grips of a sustained assault on the constitutional principles of freedom of expression and transparency, most notably, in the form of the Protection of Information Bill. What this saga demonstrates is that both these principles have been under threat for some time preceding the Bill's formulation. All this Bill has done is give a formal shape to the ANC's longstanding aversion to oversight and accountability.
This report is important because it speaks to the heart of a disturbing number of still-born babies in the Eastern Cape. In 2007, the country was deeply saddened by the revelation that, in the preceding 14 years, over 2000 babies had been still-born at the Frere Hospital, and almost 200 in that year alone. The situation was disturbing enough for us to legitimately ask the Public Service Commission to investigate the competency of the CEO, Mr. Mosana. After the PSC failed to notify us substantively of its findings, in an investigation which took over 2 years, we made an application for the full report in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). We have now received that report, with all of the information relevant to our complaint completely censored.
A link to the offending pages follows below.
In and of itself, this is entirely disturbing. However, we fear that it is merely a warning of things to come if the government gets its way with the Protection of Information Bill where censorship of crucial information in the public interest shall be the order of the day where such information is even released.
The censored sections, and those most relevant o the DA's complaint, relate to the actual qualifications Mr. Mosana possesses, compared to the requirements for the job as advertised. The report claims that Mr. Mosana was in fact suitably qualified. The CEO position required, amongst other things, "a recognized post graduate qualification in financial management or an economic field." To our knowledge, Mr. Mosana, at the time of his appointment, was in possession of a Masters degree in Politics and only had experience as a Councillor in the Buffalo City Council; hardly fit-for-purpose.
The selection panel for this post short-listed 12 candidates. In the report, those names have been blackened out. We see this as an attempt to prevent us, and indeed the public, from truly establishing whether Mr. Mosana was the ablest candidate for this position.
In a letter that was delivered to me along with the censored report, Maswale Diphofa, the PSC's Director- General claimed that the information he blackened-out was "personal information" citing section 34(1) of PAIA which states;
"The information officer of a public body must refuse a request for access to a record of the body if its disclosure would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about a third party, including a deceased individual"
We fail to see how information related specifically to the qualifications of a person who was once a public representative is in any way personal. Moreover, Mr. Mosana was in fact appointed as a senior state employee, responsible for hospitals that use public funds to discharge their duties to the public.
The DA will be lodging an appeal to the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Dr RR Mgijima, requesting that he make available the entire document without censorship. However, the fact remains that we should not have to go to these lengths to obtain information in the public interest in an open democracy.
Statement issued by Mike Waters, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, August 22 2010
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
