STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL
23 July 2020
DA APPOINTS A “FRIENDLY” OMBUDSMAN TO OVERSIGHT ROLE IN CAPE TOWN
The appointment of Vusumzi Magwebu as the new City of Cape Town Ombudsman demonstrates contempt for the concepts of accountability and transparency.
The appointment to what should be a key oversight role of a former MP who failed to make it back to parliament is a cynical act of cadre deployment.
Magwebu lost his job after last year’s election as a consequence of the DA loss of electoral support. But while his hopes to return to the green benches of parliament were dashed, the DA has rewarded him with an alternative five-year term of office, as the residents of Cape Town’s chief watchdog over the DA in government.
The role of the City Ombudsman is to act as the champion of all residents in ensuring that complaints against the City and its government are resolved in a fair and impartial manner.
The role requires actual and perceived impartiality. Appointing a DA party member, who has just completed a term of office as a public representative of the DA, means that Magwebu’s rulings will always be overshadowed by a perceived lack of impartiality.
The appointment is a crass exploitation of public funds to pay a salary to DA cadre.
Accountability is dead in the City of Cape Town.
ENDS…