WILL MOTUMI BE MADE PERMANENT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAPE TOWN 000037

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2020
TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS SF PGOV
SUBJECT: WILL MOTUMI BE MADE PERMANENT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE?

Classified By: Consul General Alberta Mayberry for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (U) Summary . On February 9, Defense Minister Lindiwe
Sisulu, briefed Parliament,s Portfolio Committee on Defense
and Veterans Affairs (Defense Committee) in response to the
poor performance of SA Acting Permanent Secretary (PermSec)
in the Ministry of Defense, Tsepe Motumi, the week before
during a meeting of the Standing Committee of Public Accounts
(SCOPA),where Motumi was unable to answer MPs questions on
steps being taken to address shortcomings in the
department,s finances. Sisulu staunchly defended Motumi and
intimated that President Zuma would confirm Motumi as the MoD
PermSec by March. End summary.


2. (U) On February 9, Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisulu,
briefed Parliament,s Portfolio Committee on Defense and
Veterans Affairs in response to the poor performance of the
Acting Permanent Secretary , Tsepe Motumi, last week during a
Public Accounts committee meeting, where Motumi was unable to
answer MPs questions on steps being taken to address
shortcomings in the Department,s financial record keeping.
Sisulu staunchly defended Motumi and intimated that President
Zuma would confirm Motumi as the PermSec by March. Sisulu
also noted she would recommend Motumi for any job and said
that Motumi has a lot of experience in defense policy even
though that did not come across in the Public Accounts
meeting. Sisulu was surprised at Motumi,s poor performance
due to the fact that she and members of the Department of
Defense had briefed Motumi and helped him prepare for the
meeting. Sisulu noted she was in attendance at the Defense
Committee meeting at her own request since she is responsible
for the Department of Defense in her current position as
Minister. She stressed several times that during her tenure,
the Department would not have another qualified audit (an
audit report in which a further qualification of the
financial statements is required because the Auditor feels
there is a limitation on the scope of the audit) by the
Auditor General. Sisulu also said several times her
Department is addressing the six problems that were addressed
in the audit; management of assets; disclosure of lease
commitments, irregular expenditure; lack of verification of
payments; accruals; and departmental revenue.

3. (U) Sisulu blamed many of her Department,s problems on
the abrupt departure of former Defense Minister Lekota and
Deputy Defense Minister George when they left the ANC to join
the Congress of the People (COPE) as well as the death in a
car accident of former PermSec Masilela. She also used
every opportunity she could to blame the opposition, and in
particular Democratic Alliance (DA) Shadow Minister David
Maynier, for tripping up Motumi in the Public Accounts
committee meeting and for blowing up the issues in the press.
Sisulu also noted there is now a perception, perhaps fueled
by the DA that the military is not ready to defend the
country and that the defense force is not prepared. Sisulu
asked Maynier to inform the DoD clearly as to the mandates of
the respective Parliamentary committees, in particular, that
of the Joint Standing Committee on Defense because she
believes the committee sometime exceeds its mandate.
Comment. Maynier recently told Econoff that the flip side is
true--the Minister has never made clear to the Committee what
the point of the military is or what its goals are. End
comment.

4. (C) Following the committee meeting, Political Counselor
and CT Political Officer met with Maynier. Maynier is
Qand CT Political Officer met with Maynier. Maynier is
disheartened that it looks like Motumi will be made permanent
PermSec saying that Motumi is not the right man for the job.
(Note. In a subsequent meeting with Ambassador and Poloffs
on February 18, Booi said he does not think Motumi will
remain in his current position, but did not elaborate on his
belief. Additionally, DAO is also not convinced that Motumi
will be made PermSec due to the fact that he is under
investigation for fiscal irregularities. End note.) Maynier
thinks that Sisulu is softening towards him, although to
Poloffs it looked like Sisuu was very harsh and attacked
Maynier at every opportunity throughout the meeting. While
Poloffs were meeting with Maynier, Defense Committee Chair,
Nyamni Booi, called Maynier to get his readout of the
meeting. It was a very cordial conversation and Poloff, who
is close to both Booi and Maynier, notes that Booi and
Maynier have a very good relationship even though they are in
opposing parties. Booi will often &allow8 Maynier to do
the ANC,s dirty work, such as when Maynier wanted to go
after Sipho Thomo, the recently fired CEO of Armscor.
Thomo, who is currently appealing his dismissal, was fired
after a disciplinary hearing that looked into allegations
relating to his leadership and management of Armscor, which
came to a head when he disclosed to Parliament late last year
that the cost of South Africa,s contract to buy eight Airbus
A400M heavy-lift planes had more than doubled. Maynier
expected Booi to oppose his request to have Thomo appear
before the Defense Committee, but Booi gave Maynier free

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