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DE RUEHTN #0037/01 0531652
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R 221652Z FEB 10
FM AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN
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INFO RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 6588
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 3370

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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