\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"Copy](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/77054_1202861948.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
INLSA<\/p>\n
Former Communications Minister Dina Pule. Picture: Neil Baynes<\/p>\n
\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Durban – The law governing the conduct of cabinet ministers must be tightened before next year\u2019s general elections, say MPs, after what they have described as a \u201cslap on the wrist\u201d for former communications minister Dina Pule. <\/p>\n
Pule was reprimanded by Speaker Max Sisulu on Tuesday and has also been subjected to the full penalties that the House may impose, after being found guilty of misleading Parliament and lying about her relationship with a man who raked in millions of rand from from her department. <\/p>\n
She was docked a month\u2019s salary – about R70 000 – and barred from participating in parliamentary debates for 15 days. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe faced a series of questions about Pule\u2019s light punishment and the ethics code. <\/p>\n
Cope MP Juli Kilian had asked Motlanthe in writing whether there were any progress reports about the implementation of the public protector\u2019s recommendations on the Executive Ethics Code from 2010. <\/p>\n
\u201cI believe the deputy president will forgive us if we believe on this side of the House that the government is not serious about rooting out corruption, particularly corruption in the executive, and that they are ignoring key findings and recommendations of the public protector to ensure accountability and a clean administration by the executive,\u201d said Kilian. <\/p>\n
She said Pule got \u201ca slap on the wrist\u201d for a serious breach of the executive ethics code. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt this stage, the Executive Ethics Act lacks the teeth to do more. It does not have any further consequences for ministers who have been found to have been in breach of the ethics code. <\/p>\n
Therefore the question arises: What is this government going to do? Will he (Motlanthe) undertake to this House that he will see to it that amendments to the act so as to give it real teeth\u2026 be tabled before Parliament?\u201d asked Kilian. <\/p>\n
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said that unlawful political directives usually got cabinet ministers into trouble, \u201clike the one that was crying here yesterday\u201d, he said, referring to Pule. \u201cThe minister must stop telling D-Gs and directors who should get a tender. We need to restore power of accounting officers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Motlanthe said that accounting officers, like directors-general, were protected against \u201cunlawful instructions or directives\u201d from ministers. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany of them who have doubts that this instruction is not lawful, they inform the minister as the political head\u2026 they ask to be given instruction in writing so that there\u2019s a record,\u201d said Motlanthe. <\/p>\n
He said the \u201crefined\u201d ethics code was to be submitted and dealt with by the cabinet during its sitting in September. It would then be submitted to Parliament for consideration. <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Former Communications Minister Dina Pule. Picture: Neil Baynes Related Stories Hugs for Pule after her apology Video: Dina Pule says sorry \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pule kicked out of Parliament Durban – The law governing the conduct of cabinet ministers must be tightened before next year\u2019s general elections, say MPs, after what they have described as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-22080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}