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DG's contract won't be renewed
09/09/2005 08:39 - (SA)
Sizwe samaYende
Nelspruit - Mpumalanga premier Thabang Makwetla will not renew the contract with the province's most senior civil servant advocate Stanley Soko when it expires at the end of this month.
Makwetla's spokesperson, Mosia Lebona, denied on Thursday that the premier's decision was influenced by evidence given in the trial of former deputy national prosecuting authority (NPA) director Cornwell Tshavhungwa in the Pretoria High Court.
Soko was implicated in trying to solicit a R1m bribe from Rainbow Kwanda, a company that was given a R15m contract in 2002 to market Mpumalanga in a more positive light.
Tshavhungwa is being tried for allegedly accepting a bribe to stop investigating irregularities in the allocation of the Rainbow Kwanda contract.
'Coincidence'
"There's no relationship at all between [Soko's contract and the court case]," Lebona said. "It's just a coincidence that these allegations come at the time that his contract with government expires."
He said the premier was following Tshavhungwa's trial and if there was tangible evidence linking Soko to corruption, he would seek legal advice.
Lebona stressed it was Makwetla's prerogative to retain or release Soko.
He was unable to say why the premier chose not to keep Soko, however.
Soko denied on Thursday that he was involved in any corruption regarding Rainbow Kwanda.
"Rainbow are wounded tigers because government terminated their contract. If there's evidence, why didn't they blow the whistle at that time?" Soko said.
He said Makwetla had not given a reason for not renewing the contract, but he was not surprised because most DGs left their posts when new premiers came in.
Soko added that he now intends going into legal practice.
Skills audit
Lebona said the outcome of a recent skills audit to assess Mpumalanga's 178 senior managers, including Soko himself, also had no bearing on Makwetla's decision.
Mpumalanga managers scored an average of 1,6 on a scale of one to four.
A score of two means that a manager has at least 50% of the skills required for that particular job, while four means that they have very good skills.
The private sector's score in the province was 1,7.
Soko is not new to controversy.
In 1997, the Moldenhauer commission found that Soko tried to derail internal probes into licence fraud irregularities, was unable to control his staff, attempted to cover up for their inadequacies by doing their work, and did not have managerial ability.
Soko headed Mpumalanga's safety and security department at the time and admitted to his ineffectual management and his fear of politicians during public testimony.
He was not, however, directly implicated in corruption.
Chief magistrate Heinrich Moldenhauer, who chaired the commission, stressed he had sympathy for Soko but insisted it would be irresponsible to allow him to continue managing taxpayer funds.
- African Eye
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