Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Thursday rejected opposition calls
to sack acting defence secretary Tsepe Motumi.
The Democratic Alliance called on President Jacob Zuma to replace Motumi, who
has held the position on an acting basis for three years, after he failed to
give MPs satisfactory answers about financial management in the department.
Motumi headed a defence delegation that was grilled by Parliament's watchdog
public accounts committee, Scopa, about the department's latest qualified audit.
He struggled to provide detailed answers about persistent problems with its
asset register, saying only that it should be completed in two years' time.
The meeting was finally cut short by committee chairman Themba Godi, who said he
hoped delegates would come better prepared in future.
Sisulu said in a statement: "Reports that the financials of the department are
in chaos are inaccurate and the calls for the commander in chief to terminate
the contract of the acting SECDEF (secretary of defence) baseless."
The minister added that she had received a detailed briefing by Motumi before
the Scopa hearing and "was more than convinced that the team had all the answers
and was well prepared to share with members of Parliament progress being made to
improve financial systems in the department of defence".
Sisulu said she had requested a meeting with the chairman of Parliament's
portfolio committee on defence to "understand what went wrong in the Scopa
hearing".
The department of defence has received qualified audit statements for nine years
in a row.
DA MP James Lorimer said the Scopa hearing had made it plain that the
department's financial affairs were "in a mess and that intervention is needed
to halt what could be large-scale theft of public money".
He also called for an investigation into its decision to award a contract to
clear unexploded ammunition on state land to a company that allegedly has no
track record in the field but has links to a procurement official.
It's just more of the same : Armscor, DoD, Denel,
Eskom, SA Post Office, SABC, Transnet, Sentech, SAPS, NPA, DoJ, Office of the
Public Protector, Office of the Auditor-General.