Accusations of hypocrisy and “selective morality” are flying after Minister of Public Works Dean Macpherson appointed Dr Len Konar – a former Steinhoff director caught in the company’s corruption storm – to steer the troubled Independent Development Trust (IDT) back to integrity.
Macpherson is standing firm behind his controversial decision, despite a chorus of criticism raising the alarm about the reputational risk.
The shock appointment comes as Macpherson’s office also accuses detractors of resisting long-overdue reforms at a state entity plagued by scandal.
Konar, a respected governance specialist with years at the top of the corporate world, joined the IDT in June as part of a 10-member rescue squad tasked with restoring credibility to the agency responsible for building schools, clinics and community facilities.
The IDT has been mired in maladministration, repeated auditor-general warnings, and a suspended CEO facing bribery charges.
But Konar’s name remains a part of Steinhoff’s R106-billion collapse of 2017 – a corporate disaster that wiped out shareholder value, crippled pension funds and gutted the Public Investment Corporation’s (PIC’s) investments on behalf of public servants.
Although Konar was never formally accused of wrongdoing, he admitted to investigators that he was “kept in the dark, misled, misinformed or not informed at all”.
When Sunday World pressed the ministry about the optics of bringing a Steinhoff veteran into a public clean-up mission, spokesperson James de Villiers argued that the questions were “an attack on the ministry’s efforts to clean up the IDT”.
But not everyone is convinced.
Themba Godi, former chair of parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, told Sunday World that the appointment exposes a deep contradiction at the heart of the DA’s new role in government.
“The DA in opposition and the DA in government are like day and night. We were subjected to endless lectures about good governance and integrity by the DA when they were in opposition.
“Now that they are in government, they have just proven that they are not different from the ANC,” Godi charged.
The African People’s Convention leader went further, suggesting that the DA’s “clean governance” narrative is little more than a media mirage.
“If you are white, your background doesn’t follow you, but if you are African, your history follows you like a shadow,” Godi said.
Godi said the Steinhoff affair was still unresolved.
“The Steinhoff conundrum has yet to be fully answered. If there is any good for the public that Dr Konar wants to do, it would be to publicly account for the loss of public money at Steinhoff, an entity that looked upon him and his fellow board members to keep a watchful eye on public investment and funds belonging to private individuals,” he said.
“The same DA has called for Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane to be removed because of a dark cloud over her.
“The DA also called for the removal of the then minister of higher education, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, because of a dark cloud over her.
“They have no problem as long as a white person has a dark cloud over him. To them, corruption is African. If you are white, it’s some little inconvenience.”
Godi warned that the country’s majority was no longer blind to these patterns.
“The African majority is slowly waking up to the reality that people have no problem with corruption or integrity.
“It only depends on who is perceived to be corrupt. If you are white, it’s alright. If you are Black, step back.”
