Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe ‘s second attempt to appoint his chief of staff has suffered a blow after the new candidate he recommended for the post was rejected due to lack of the required experience.
Mantashe, who is also the national chairperson of the ANC, had recommended former SABC
journalist Unathi Binqose to be given the cushy job but the human resources unit in his department rejected him, saying he was inexperienced for the plumb job.
Binqose’s rejection comes a few months after Mantashe ‘s first preferred candidate Charles Makola was also rejected for similar reasons by the Department of Public Services and Administration, which has a final say in the appointments of chiefs of staff.
Binqose’s rejection has left Mantashe without the chief of staff for nine months.
Workers in the department responsible for human capital allege that Mantashe has been “harassing and abusing” them to appoint unsuitable candidates to fill the vacancy.
However, Mantashe dismissed the claim, saying if such were true, he would have long bulldozed his way into having one of the two candidates that were rejected appointed by force.
Mantashe said that he had in fact elected not to have a chief of staff because of the process that rejected the two candidates. The minister originally recommended Makola to be given the nod to lead his political office, but the candidate was turned down because he allegedly did not possess the required NQF 7 qualification for the post.
This then forced Mantashe to go back to the drawing board, and he presented a different candidate, Binqose, who was overqualified with NQF 8, but his name was shot down on the basis of lack of managerial experience.
It was at that point that Mantashe, who is legally empowered to decide who leads his office, albeit within the confines of a set criterion, decided to throw in the towel and give the role and duties of chief of staff to everyone in the department.
“As we speak, I do not have a chief of staff. At the beginning of this administration, I recommended Charles Makola, an experienced fellow whose decorated CV includes being a municipal manager for 13 years and who is seasoned and solid politically, with a deep understanding of issues.
They purged him, saying his qualifications were equivalent to NQF level 6 and the position requires NQF level 7,” Mantashe told Sunday World.
“I gave up and went on to recommend Unathi Binqose, who surpassed the required qualification because his was equivalent to NQF level 8, but they also rejected him, saying his experience is in junior management compared to chief of staff.
“I then decided and communicated to everyone that I will not propose anyone for chief of staff; we will all run the office collectively, and that is the status as of now,” Mantashe said.
“If I was harassing and abusing anyone, I would have a chief of staff but the reality is that I do not have one.”
But staffers at the human capital division of the department claim that Mantashe has been breathing down their necks, trying to force Makola down their throats. They allege that he even went as far as threatening them with dismissal if they do not do as he tells them.
However, they could not prove their claims, saying that the inappropriate instructions by Mantashe were communicated verbally.
“The minister is harassing and abusing us to hire unqualified people. He wanted Mr Charles Makola as chief of staff, but we cannot agree to that because we are guided by guidelines from DPSA and the ministerial handbook,” said an insider with intimate knowledge of developments.
In the recruitment process, the department filling a post would handle everything from shortlisting and conducting interviews to confirming the appointment or not. The decision is then sent to the DPSA for verification that the correct process was followed, and if so, to issue a concurrence.
Our informants, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, added that Mantashe, after failing to get the chief of staff, had now inherited battles from his deputy, ANC Youth League deputy president Phumzile Mgcina, whose head of office, another ANCYL cadre, Njabulo Mtolo, is also being rejected.
Mantashe said the claims were malicious because her deputy is her own person.
“But her situation is unique and strange as well because my deputy got transferred from labour, and she moved here with her office, but they started rejecting certain people who were working with her at labour.
She is asking a simple question: what is wrong with people who were already hired by the
same government, unless this department belongs to a different government?”
Mgcina was moved to become Mantashe’s deputy late last year during the mini-cabinet reshuffle that shifted Thembi Simelane from justice to human settlements, swapping roles with Mmamoloko Kubayi.
But in government circles there is a disillusionment that there is an “attempt to depoliticise political offices in government”. Mantashe sympathisers feel he was being targeted in this new phenomenon, stating that there were several offices with unqualified personnel.
Among others, these include that of Deputy President Paul Mashatile, whose PA apparently doesn’t have a post-matric qualification, as well as Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen’s Chief of Staff, who continues to work despite being ruled offside.
