DA ends Bonnie and Clyde’s PSC looting spree

7 December 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is proud to report that we have struck a decisive blow in our ongoing battle to free the Public Service Commission (PSC) from the clutches of corrupt ANC cadres.

According to media reports, the Director-General of the PSC, DovhaniMamphiswana, was fired last week after he was found guilty of irregularly appointing his mistress as the head of professional ethics.

This comes after the DA waged a relentless year-long battle to free the PSC from the grasp of Mamphiswana, who is a known ANC cadre. In our pursuit of Mamphiswana and his mistress – whom we dubbed Bonnie and Clyde – we successfully thwarted repeated attempts by both Minister Senzo Mchunu and President Cyril Ramaphosa to aid and abet these bandits.

It was the DA that originally demanded a probe into the allegations in January.

It was the DA that fought back when a faction within the PSC sought to derail the investigation in February.

It was the DA that laid criminal charges against Mamphiswana and his mistress, when the investigation confirmed the allegations, in July.

It was the DA that prevented Ramaphosa from delaying the matter indefinitely, when we exposed that he had bizarrely appointed a second investigation into Mamphiswana in August.

It is only due to the DA’s ceaseless hunt to bring the bandits to justice that Ramaphosa and Mchunu eventually had no other choice but to fire Mamphiswana. But it remains a tragedy that it took a full year for the government to act against someone who had turned our most important public sector ethics watchdog into a cesspit of corruption. Due to the ANC’s delaying tactics in defense of their beloved cadre, taxpayers continued to pay Mamphiswana’s salary of close to R2 million for a whole year.

We nonetheless welcome reports that Mamphiswana was – fittingly for a bandit – “seen escorted by security guards” out of the PSC headquarters last week. And now we will continue the fight to ensure that he gets escorted to the nearest jail cell.

The DA will be writing to both Mchunu and Ramaphosa to obtain written confirmation of Mamphiswana’s firing, ask what steps are being taken to prevent him from ever being paid another cent of taxpayer money, as well as to obtain copies of all evidence collected against him. I will then personally hand that information to the investigating officer at Cape Town Central Police Station, where the DA laid our criminal charges back in July.

Just like we defeated Ramaphosa and Mchunu’s efforts to protect this corrupt cadre, we will pile pressure onto the police to ensure he is convicted. Our country will not be safe until bandits like these are behind lock and key. But as this case clearly shows, South Africans can be assured of one thing: the DA is the only sheriff in town they can trust. We will not rest until we have defeated the ANC cadres and bandits who are destroying our beloved country.

Issued by Leon Schreiber,DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 7 December 2020