The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture failed to properly oversee the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (SAIDS), with a senior official admitting he did not know how the entity was using its credit card.
Acting deputy director-general Sibusiso Tsanyane, the official responsible for overseeing SAIDS, told Parliament on Tuesday that he was unaware of the institute’s credit-card spending, despite MPs uncovering payments for baby shower gifts, Uber Eats, florists and restaurants.
He also admitted he was not involved in interviewing SAIDS board candidates, had never seen their CVs and did not participate in the board’s induction.
Tsanyane could not even identify a single SAIDS board member with governance skills.
His admissions prompted a furious response from MPs, who accused DSAC of failing to do the very oversight work it was supposed to be doing.
ANC MP Matsholo Mmolotsane said Tsanyane was also responsible for the troubled Robben Island Museum.
“If I were the DG of the department, I think I would have taken Mr Tsanyane to a disciplinary hearing. Robben Island is under Mr Tsanyane, and we have problems. I can mention all of them. Now, under the same Mr Tsanyane, SAIDS has problems,” she said.
“Mr Tsanyane, are you aware that this is how public money is spent by SAIDS?”
“No, honourable member, I’m not aware that the credit card has been used,” Tsanyane said.
“Where is the oversight then? Where is the oversight role of DSAC?” Mmolotsane asked.
Tsanyane admitted the department had not scrutinised the entity’s finances closely enough.
“Without abdicating, these are the things where, when we do financial analysis, we have not gone that deep in terms of assessing the financials like this,” he said.
Committee chairperson Joe McGluwa then delivered a blunt rebuke, telling Tsanyane that MPs were effectively doing the department’s job for it.
“Let me explain to you. We are doing your job. We are finding out and we are assessing, and Honourable Mmolotsane is now bringing out all these things,” he said.
“Tomorrow the minister is not here, the DG is not here, and tomorrow the headline is that the DG has now disciplined so-and-so at SAIDS because of one, two, three.”
“They must do their job, the department. They must not piggyback on our work.”
Neither Sport Minister Gayton McKenzie nor director-general attended the meeting.
McGluwa then asked Tsanyane what action DSAC would take following what MPs had uncovered.
“Chair, we will engage with the entity,” Tsanyane said.
“There are obviously oversight dynamics that we also face as a department when it comes to engaging with public entities, in the sense that we normally try to deal with the issue of us being seen as interfering in the operations of the entities.”
“That is why I’m saying that the details that are coming out today are not the details that we go deep into looking at. But we will engage further.”
But the department’s oversight failures went beyond the credit card.
EFF MP Eugene Mthethwa pressed Tsanyane on whether the department could demonstrate that SAIDS’s board had the governance expertise required to oversee the entity.
“You said when the advert goes out, it is looking for skills. It is not assuming. Who in this board has proven to have those skills?” Mthethwa asked.
“I’m not able to say who, as in a person, because I was not part of the interviews, and I’ve not seen their CVs, honourable member,” Tsanyane said.
Pressed on whether he had someone specific in mind, he said: “I’m not referring to anyone, honourable member. My hypothetical understanding is like that.”
Mthethwa then pointed to the consequence of the department’s lack of knowledge.
“So you don’t know whether this board has got those special skills or not,” Mthethwa said.
“Yet this is the board that has been endorsed by the department, that has been approved by the minister. Yet today they can’t even answer issues of fiduciary duties.”
Tsanyane also revealed that DSAC’s induction of new boards does not cover an entity’s own policies, including its credit-card policy.
“No, honourable member, we don’t. We focus on the responsibilities of boards in terms of ensuring that policies are in place,” he said.
He confirmed that he had not been part of the SAIDS board’s induction.
Asked whether he had confidence in the board, Tsanyane conceded that what MPs had uncovered was deeply concerning.
“I would say it’s concerning, honourable member, from what we’ve heard from the morning.”
“It raises a need for us as a department to do a continuous induction, or maybe engage again with the board, so that there’s an understanding in terms of their roles and responsibilities as board members.”
Mthethwa said the department’s hands-off approach had allowed problems to develop inside the entities it funds.
“Mr Tsanyane, again you have shown to this committee that the department is still in an arm’s-length relationship with the entities,” he said.
“These are some of the things that you’re supposed to pick up very quickly, before the money is spent. If they are spending the credit card for R100,000 on such things, you can imagine what happens to the other amount.”
Acting director-general Vusithemba Ndima admitted that the department needed to strengthen its monitoring mechanisms.
“This is a learning curve for us. It also indicates that we need to strengthen the monitoring mechanism,” he said.
“It’s not by intention that we don’t have enough capacity, but of course the resources determine what kind of resources we have.”
But McGluwa rejected the idea that the failures could simply be dismissed as a learning experience.
“You acknowledge it’s a learning curve, but from the committee’s perspective, this should be seen as a challenge and also an opportunity for the department to adjust the way they are doing things, adjust the culture, identify the missing links within the department,” he said.
The committee ordered DSAC to provide a list of the officials assigned to oversee each of its entities.
The revelations come as DSAC faces another serious governance problem.
Last week, the Auditor-General gave Robben Island Museum an adverse audit opinion, the only one among the department’s 28 entities.
DSAC has been sent questions.