The leaking of sensitive parliamentary information to the media appears to have been at the centre of the fallout between the institution and its suspended head of security, Zelda Holtzman.
Holtzman and her deputy, Motlatsi Mokgatla, were put on precautionary suspension on July 30 for alleged security breaches and other issues affecting the Parliament Protection Services (PPS).
On Friday, the labour court in Cape Town reserved judgment in Holtzman’s bid to stop her parliamentary disciplinary hearing from going ahead.
Judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker said she would rather wait for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to decide whether it had jurisdiction to hear Holtzman’s dispute. Holtzman turned to the CCMA last month, claiming her precautionary suspension was unfair.
The CCMA is expected to make its ruling tomorrow.
Meanwhile, in an affidavit to the labour court, secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana states that the decision to suspend the duo came after it became apparent that there was a real risk of the failure of the security function of Parliament and, as the accounting officer, he could not let Parliament’s security be compromised by Holtzman and Mokgatla’s failures.
“It was incumbent upon me to investigate the cause of the leaks and the reasons behind the failure of the applicant and Mr Mokgatla to perform their management duties and responsibilities.”
In court papers, he blames Holtzman’s unit for the leaks and accuses her of failing to stop them.
Mgidlana cited four occasions where the minutes of his meetings with senior parliamentary staff about the provision of driving services by the PPS to his office were leaked to the media.
In the papers, Mgidlana also seeks to refute allegations that he acted unlawfully in appointing a junior staff member to head the project to strengthen Parliament’s security.
He reveals that the so-called white shirt bouncers – who Parliament hired under questionable circumstances and who have since been tasked with removing Economic Freedom Fighters MPs from plenary sessions – were “head-hunted” by a head-hunting agency.
Parliament previously said it recruited the security personnel from the SA Police Service.
Mgidlana states that, in June this year, after the National Assembly decided that the PPS needed strengthening, he received an instruction from the executive authority of Parliament – Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete and chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Thandi Modise – to implement the decision of the National Assembly.
“As the recruitment had to be done on an urgent basis, it was agreed that a head-hunting agency should be used to assist with the recruitment,” he said.
A key part of Mgidlana’s affidavit is the leaking of parliamentary information to the media, especially information related to the alleged use of blue lights by the PPS at his instruction.
He said that information security within the PPS, a key function of the head of these services (Holtzman), was being compromised by the office that was responsible for its protection.
“By this time, it became clear to me that despite the repeated breaches of information security within the PPS and my request for the applicant [Holtzman] to address the breach, she failed to do so.
“The very unit responsible for information security was responsible for the leaks to the media, as the information that found its way into the media was information entrusted to the PPS.”
Mgidlana said he had raised a concern with senior managers, including Holtzman, as to how information from the computers of staff members within the PPS could easily be accessed and then leaked, distorted and used to the detriment of the institution.
“I requested that they undertake an exercise to eliminate the risk identified, to improve the organisational process and restore the integrity and dignity of the PPS.”
Mgidlana also defends his decision to appoint the manager of access and assets, Deon van der Spuy, to head the project to strengthen Parliament’s security.
Mgidlana says he turned to Van der Spuy because he had acquired experience of working on security matters during the 2015 state of the nation address.