The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) was accused of undermining both Parliament and its own political leadership on Tuesday, 4 August.
This after officials admitted that the report on the department’s controversial FIFA World Cup delegation had never been formally presented to either Minister Gayton McKenzie or Deputy Minister Peace Mabe before it was tabled before Parliament.
The startling admission shifted the focus of the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture from the missing financial details of the controversial trip to a deeper question, who authorised a report that neither the Minister nor the Deputy Minister had approved?
The revelation emerged after committee member Gaolatlhe Kgabo asked whether the Minister or Deputy Minister had even had an opportunity to consider the report before it was presented.
Deputy Minister Peace Mabe’s response stunned the committee.
“No, I haven’t seen this report. I did request to be briefed on items that would be presented here, so I don’t know this report.”
She told MPs she had received an apology from Chief Director Vincent Campbell explaining that he was unavailable to brief her before the meeting.
Campbell confirmed he had been attending preparations for the 2027 FIFA World Cup with local authorities in Sandton and had asked another senior official to stand in for him, but that official was also unavailable.
Unsatisfied with the explanation, committee members pressed officials on who had prepared the report and why it had been brought before Parliament in what they described as an incomplete state.
Director-General Cynthia Khumalo said the report had been prepared by the department’s Sport Branch and insisted it covered most of what Parliament had requested, except the financial information.
“The country is interested in knowing what these people were doing there. Finances are not there because they haven’t been concluded,” said Khumalo.
But the committee’s concern deepened when Khumalo acknowledged that there had been no formal briefing for Minister Gayton McKenzie before the report was tabled.
“There was no formal briefing for the Minister, but the document was forwarded to the office of the Minister,” she said.
For ANC MP Eugene Mthethwa, that admission confirmed what he said had become a pattern within the department.
“This department undermines the Deputy Minister.”
He argued that simply emailing a document to the Minister’s office could not be equated with ministerial approval or accountability.
“The people who are accountable to Parliament are the Minister and the Deputy Minister. The staff provides technical support. It is not the department that is accountable to Parliament,” said Mthethwa.
Mthethwa warned that Parliament had effectively been asked to consider a report that had never been owned by the department’s political principals.
“You are bringing a report that was not even approved by the Minister. No Deputy Minister knows it. So we are undermined,” said Mthethwa.
Committee members said the episode reflected a broader failure of governance within DSAC, questioning how officials could expect Parliament to exercise oversight over a report that had neither been properly briefed nor formally endorsed by the executive authority responsible for answering to Parliament.
The committee ultimately rejected the report and instructed the department to return within seven days with a complete account of the FIFA World Cup delegation, including the outstanding financial information, the funding sources and the approvals surrounding the controversial trip.
