Parliament has slammed the DA’s claims that its secretary Xolile George has failed to declare his personal relationship with public protector, advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, arguing this amounted to speculation and an invasion of their privacy.
The allegation was made by DA chief whip George Michalakis on Monday, after Gcaleka wrote to him last week, informing him of her decision to recuse herself from probing his complaint over George’s alleged inflated salary, because she “may reasonably be perceived to have a conflict of interest between my private interests and my official duties in this matter”.
Michalakis had asked the public protector to probe how George’s salary increased by 88%, from R2.6m in 2022, to more than R4m last year, as well as allegations of misappropriation of funds related to the hosting of a Brics parliamentary summit at Emperor’s Palace in 2023.
Gcaleka, in terms of the Public Protector Act, has now delegated all her powers and functions related to this complaint to deputy public protector, advocate Dinkie Portia Dube.
This led to Michalakis questioning whether George had declared his relationship with Gcaleka to National Assembly speaker Thoko Didiza.
“The exact nature of the relationship between Mr George and the public protector is none of my concern,” said Michalakis in a statement. “However, it is clearly of such a nature that the public protector saw it fit to recuse herself based on her ‘private interests’ in the matter related to him.
Parliament will not comment on speculation or reflections directed at personal lives of officials, particularly where such commentary descends into intrusion on private relationships
— Moloto Mothapo, parliament’s head of communications
“The question now is: did the secretary to parliament make a declaration to the executive authority of parliament (the speaker and chairperson of the NCOP), declaring the same possible conflict of interest?
“This is important, since the public protector is the head of a chapter 9 institution that may well in future be called on to investigate matters related to parliament, of which George is the accounting officer, and he therefore has an ethical obligation to disclose such a possible conflict.
“In a response to the DA’s inquiry on the matter to the speaker, she declined to state whether this was done, stating that it ‘falls within the responsibility of the office of the public protector to respond to the DA’.
“This is simply not true, since the effect of such a conflict would have an impact on George’s work as much as it would on that of the public protector.”
But parliament’s head of communications, Moloto Mothapo, said George was under no legal obligation to declare his personal relationships.
“Parliament will not comment on speculation or reflections directed at personal lives of officials, particularly where such commentary descends into intrusion on private relationships. There is no law, policy, or regulatory framework that requires officials to disclose personal relationships, and attempts to demand such disclosures fall outside the scope of legitimate public accountability.
“The allegations relating to the secretary to parliament are already subject to an established and due committee-led oversight process. That process is the appropriate forum through which any substantive matters must be ventilated and considered.
“We don’t see how prying into the private lives of officials has a bearing on the issues under consideration or helps advance the constitutional oversight mandate of the institution.”
TimesLIVE
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