Soundbite by Nazley Sharif MP.
The DA has written to Parliament’s Public Service Committee Chairperson requesting that the committee investigates how Minister Sisisi Tolashe may have been employing public servants in her home to undertake nanny services, while her family was taking a portion of their taxpayer-funded salary.
This would be a disgraceful act of corruption. Appointing people to do household work, in the home of a Minister, at tax-payer expense, and then taking part of their salary, is the very definition of corruption.
It is also illegal to summarily fire such an employee, without any labour law process, on a whim.
Minister Sisisi Tolashe lurches from scandal to scandal, accused of using cars donated by the Chinese Embassy and not disclosing them, lying to Parliament, interfering in senior appointments – and all the while her department of Social Development is failing our most vulnerable fellow South Africans.
It is becoming untenable for Minister Tolashe to remain in office. Last week she invited the President to remove her from office, but President Ramaphosa has not yet acted. The pressure on President Ramaphosa to fire Tolashe is now at a critical level.
Every day that Tolashe remains in office, without a full parliamentary inquiry into her conduct, is unacceptable. There are now multiple allegations against the Minister and this is another one that adds to the scandalous behaviour of the Minister.
It cannot be that a Minister is acting outside of ethical leadership and keeps getting away with it. It is unthinkable given the dire straits of the most vulnerable of South Africans, which the Department of Social Development should be focusing on.