A bitter clash is unfolding between social development minister Sisisi Tolashe and her predecessor, Lindiwe Zulu, over DSDTV — an in-house communications channel that is claimed to have saved the department of social development (DSD) millions. The platform, now suspended and under investigation, has become the latest flashpoint in a department beset by financial controversies. Tolashe told parliament last week that DSDTV, launched in July 2023 under Zulu, was introduced without a business plan, operated for nearly two years without proper monitoring, and had been characterised by the questionable appointment of various service providers.
She said the auditor-general had uncovered the “potential mismanagement of public funds on DSDTV”, prompting her to suspend the channel pending a formal investigation into it. The suspension came after a Sunday Times exposé of DSDTV’s wasteful spending, including a controversial R3m trip to a UN event in New York. Two months after that report, former communications head Lumka Oliphant — a key driver behind DSDTV — was suspended over alleged mismanagement of the integrated justice programme and unauthorised expenditure on DSDTV.
She was later dismissed without a disciplinary hearing. Zulu has responded angrily, accusing Tolashe of misleading parliament and casting doubt on the integrity of the advisers involved in the project from the outset. “I don’t want to be accused of interfering or trying to rule from the grave, but what the minister said is disturbing,” Zulu told the Sunday Times.
Read Full Article on TimesLIVE
[paywall]
“I know that procedures and protocols were followed every step of the way from day one. Those very same advisers who were involved at the start are still there today. Why have they changed their stories?
Did they advise the minister wrongly?” Oliphant has accused Tolashe of lying to parliament. “It’s clear that Sisisi Tolashe has [had] to sustain the lie,” Oliphant told the Sunday Times.
[/paywall]
