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A senior official is in hot water for uttering words to the effect that “these people are boring” at the end of a virtual parliamentary meeting on Tuesday.
Parliamentarians want justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola to take action against JS Masite, who chairs the internal audit committee of the prison services department.
Masite, who did not turn off his microphone at the end of the meeting, could be heard speaking on SeSotho saying “they are so boring,” adding that the meeting could have ended after an hour. The meeting, which began at 8 a.m. Tuesday and ended shortly after 9.30 a.m. M., discussed the findings of the department’s qualified audit for 2019/20.
On Wednesday morning, Masite claimed that he had been complaining about a previous meeting.
“Let me start by apologizing for not closing my microphone during the time I was talking about my personal problems. When he was talking about boring people and whatever, it wasn’t related to the meeting we had with the portfolio committee. I had another meeting at 6 am that ended at 7:45 am, ”he said.
Masite said it was “really disappointing” that the clip of his misstep went viral without people understanding what had actually happened.
MPs didn’t buy her explanation and wanted the department to take action against her.
Werner Horn of the district attorney, who had requested a translation, called Masite’s explanation “questionable at best and highly unlikely,” as the comments were made right at the end of the meeting.
ANC MPs Nomathemba Maseko-Jele and Jacqui Mofokeng insisted that, while on the surface Masite’s words could be taken lightly, they had a deeper meaning and were insulting.
They were also not satisfied with his explanation.
Glynnis Breytenbach, the district attorney, proposed that the committee receive details of the meetings Masite said he was referring to.
National Correctional Services Commissioner Arthur Fraser indicated that Masite was not an employee of his department, but an independent chair of Lamola’s appointed audit committee. Fraser said he would involve Lamola in the matter raised by MPs as the authority that appointed Masite.
The department received a qualified audit from the auditors general based on the irregular expenses incurred, which went from R159 million in 2018/19 to R1,044 million in 2019/20.
“The department did not have an adequate system to identify and disclose all irregular expenses incurred, so we could not confirm the completeness of the irregular expenses disclosed in the financial statements,” the auditor general said in his report.
The auditor general also found that competitive bidding processes were not followed, there was non-compliance with the SITA Law, and three quotes were not obtained.
The auditor general said that these categories of irregular expenses were not disclosed as irregular expenses in the financial statement.
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