Dirco Pretoria CBD

The protests in Pretoria’s CBD are central to the breakdown in the International Relations and Cooperation Portfolio Committee meeting with DIRCO. Photo: Twitter / @AdvBarryRoux

DIRCO CFO accused of sabotaging international relations committee

The DA believe DIRCO CEO Caiphus Ramasha has been deliberately sabotaging the work of the International Relations Portfolio Committee.

Dirco Pretoria CBD

The protests in Pretoria’s CBD are central to the breakdown in the International Relations and Cooperation Portfolio Committee meeting with DIRCO. Photo: Twitter / @AdvBarryRoux

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believe Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) chief financial officer Caiphus Ramashau has been deliberately derailing the deliberations of the International Relations and Cooperation Portfolio Committee.

Problems in the Pretoria CBD

The committee met this week at the offices of DIRCO in Pretoria following the outbreak of protesting, looting, and violence in the city’s central business district. They were due to discuss DIRCO’s ‘New York Pilot Project’ before the Pretoria protests broke out.

The situation appears to boil down to the illicit drug trade in the area. Local taxi operators accused businesses owned by foreign nationals to be dealing the drug known as Nyaope.

They apparently took it upon themselves to raid the suspected shops instead of leaving it to the police and a taxi driver was killed during the protests, which only served to inflame the situation even more.

Lack of respect shown by the DIRCO CFO

The committee was appalled by the apparent lack of understanding of the role of the portfolio committee by Ramashau and were also stunned by his subsequent insubordination in terms of complying with instructions from the committee.

“The CFO, who was previously suspended for 13 months pending an investigation into allegations of maladministration, has clearly not learned any lessons from his suspension,” said DA shadow deputy minister of international relations and cooperation Mergan Chetty.

“He initially chose to deliberately withhold supplying the information requested by the committee, regarding details of the highly controversial ‘New York Pilot Project’ that has already cost the country millions of Rands in penalties.”

Mergan Chetty

Committee was allegedly lied to

According to the official opposition, when the committee reconvened the next day for the DIRCO CFO and his team to answer further questions, the CFO chose to sabotage the work of the committee in exercising its oversight role and dismissed his team before they could meet with the committee.

“When questioned as to why his team were not present, he misled the committee by stating that the team had requested to be released due to the rioting that had occurred in the Pretoria CBD,” said Chetty.

“Upon cross-questioning of the officials the next morning, all members indicated that they were released on instructions from the CFO and none of them had requested to leave due to the situation in the CBD.”

Mergan Chetty

He apparently further misled the committee by stating that his team of officials had left the venue when the majority claim they were still there until around 16:00.

“The committee observed a general attitude of disrespect and the dismissive stance of the CFO was not appreciated, as DIRCO is no one person’s fiefdom,” stated Chetty.

“The DA, together with the portfolio committee, will be addressing this matter with the Minister and will be requesting for a full investigation into the conduct of the CFO and his team for their alleged attempt to sabotage the workings of the portfolio’s oversight responsibility, as contained in the Constitution.”

Mergan Chetty