Minister in sex and lies scandal
2011-04-17 10:24
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Thabo Mbeki
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Piet Rampedi and Jacques Pauw
Johannesburg - Sicelo Shiceka, the embattled cooperative
governance and traditional affairs minister, is caught up in an
unravelling web of sex, scandal and deceit.
City Press has been
shown a list of names said to be current and former lovers of Shiceka,
who has been on sick leave since February.
Three sources close to
Shiceka have spilled the beans on his affairs with a string of women,
some of whom he fathered children with.
The minister also has a live-in partner and an estranged wife.
Most of the women with whom Shiceka allegedly had romantic liaisons denied it when contacted, but confirmed knowing him.
One
of the women with whom Shiceka has fathered a child is Free State
public works MEC Sisi Mabe, in whose presence Shiceka collapsed during a
visit to Bloemfontein in February.
A source close to Mabe said
she rushed the minister to a local hospital and “camped at the hospital
for days, sleeping on the benches”.
Mabe did not respond to our questions this week.
The
three sources close to Shiceka confirmed that his department had seen
an exodus of female employees. Other women were afraid to visit his
office, they said.
City Press was also shown SMSes believed to
have been sent by one of Shiceka’s lovers, who is unhappy with his
“control freak” behaviour and “empty promises”.
When contacted,
the woman laughed and asked whether City Press was “going to make me
famous”. She would neither confirm nor deny the affair.
It has
further emerged that Shiceka enjoyed an improper relationship with a top
North West official at a bankrupt municipality whom he allegedly
protected from being fired.
City Press was told it was unlikely
that Shiceka would be fired by President Jacob Zuma because he was seen
as being part of a powerful Gauteng ANC faction which includes ANC
Women’s League president Angie Motshekga; her husband, ANC chief whip
Mathole Motshekga; and former housing MEC Dan Mofokeng.
This group swung Gauteng behind Zuma at the 2007 Polokwane conference.
ANC and government insiders said Zuma treated Shiceka “like a favourite son”.
They
likened the relationship to that of former president Thabo Mbeki and
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Mbeki’s late health minister.
Sources said Shiceka had fathered a string of children, some of whom lived with him.
Parliament’s
ethics committee this week announced an investigation into Shiceka for
alleged abuse of public office, and has referred allegations of
wasteful spending to the Public Protector.
Shiceka was exposed
last week by the Sunday Times, which said he had spent more than R300
000 visiting his former girlfriend, who was serving a two-year sentence
in a Swiss prison.
It also said he spent R6 400 000 in taxpayers’ money on luxurious hotel accommodation, in just one year.
This
week Shiceka denied the allegations against him, saying he was the
victim of a smear campaign by two unnamed former employees whose
contracts had not been renewed: “There are two women whose contracts
have ended.
They have vowed and threatened to go down with me.
I do not abuse abafazi (women),” was all Shiceka was prepared to tell City Press in a telephone interview.
His
spokesperson, Vuyelwa Vika, said: “Minister Shiceka is on sick leave.
Your questions would require us to consult him, but unfortunately he
has been given leave to recuperate and as soon as he is well enough to
resume his duties he will be in a position to guide and advise on the
questions.
“The minister will cooperate fully with the office of
the Public Protector to respond to the allegations made about him in the
media.”
A source privy to the affairs told City Press the
minister’s mistresses regularly complained about inadequate attention
from him, and his philandering.
“It is a power thing. He sees
them as sex objects. The problem with some of these women is that they
like good things,” the source said.
City Press is in possession
of a commission report marked “Top Secret” and presented to former North
West premier Maureen Modiselle last August.
It describes an
“improper relationship” between Shiceka and Nana Masithela, the chief
financial officer of the bankrupt Madibeng municipality.
The
report, compiled by a company hired to investigate graft in the
municipality, claims Masithela accompanied Shiceka on a trip to Belgium
last year and also visited him in Cape Town.
Top officials tell
how Masithela threatened anybody in Madibeng – based in Brits and with a
yearly budget of R1 billion – who dared to oppose her, saying that
Shiceka was “protecting” her and she was untouchable because he had
deployed her to the municipality.
On Friday Masithela invited
City Press to a meeting to discuss her relationship with Shiceka, but
she failed to keep the appointment.
