AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: More members of executive implicated in Department of Social Development fallout

Two independent reports discussed by Parliament’s Social Development committee on Wednesday allege possible culpability relating to irregular appointments on the part of Public Service Minister Imzamo Buthelezi and Deputy Social Development Minister Ganief Hendricks in addition to axed minister Sisisi Tolashe.

Two damning reports tabled before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Wednesday have broadened the accountability reckoning at the Department of Social Development (DSD), raising questions about the conduct of figures beyond the now-removed minister Sisisi Tolashe — including the minister of public service and administration, Mzamo Buthelezi, and the deputy minister of social development, Ganief Hendricks.

The committee has now received the final report of the Public Service Commission (PSC) into the irregular appointment of 22-year-old Lesedi Mabiletja as chief of staff in Tolashe’s office, as well as a report prepared by the forensic law firm Mketsu & Associates that investigated the irregular length of contract given to the department’s former director-general Peter Netshipale.

Both reports were undertaken in the wake of Daily Maverick’s reporting on the governance crisis at the DSD.

Tolashe was removed from office by President Cyril Ramaphosa in May. The department is now led by Acting Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, who also serves as the minister of women.

As Daily Maverick first reported in September 2025, Netshipale was appointed as director-general on a five-year contract despite the Cabinet having approved only a one-year term, a restriction imposed because Netshipale would reach the mandatory public service retirement age of 65 in 2026.

When the discrepancy became public through Daily Maverick’s reporting, Tolashe told Parliament it was a “clerical error”.

An independent forensic investigation into the issue was subsequently commissioned by the DSD at a cost to taxpayers of R153,000 — only for Tolashe to refuse to cooperate in any way, long before her dismissal by Ramaphosa.

Tolashe’s “total non-cooperation”, the Mketsu & Associates report states, was one of several “systemic roadblocks” that “considerably hindered” the investigation.

But the firm’s director, Sydwell Mketsu, presenting the report to Parliament, made it clear that Tolashe’s parliamentary explanation that Netshipale’s contract was a “clerical error” should be dismissed entirely.

“The investigation completely refutes the former Minister’s defense [sic] that this was an innocent clerical error,” states the report.

This is because the forensic pr