Former head of intelligence Mo Shaik has resigned as a special adviser to human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
In a letter seen by the FM, Sisulu has informed public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu that Shaik resigned from the post and that she will be appointing another adviser in his place.
This follows a furore over Shaik’s appointment and that of former national director of public prosecutions Menzi Simelane. Shaik says the controversy has had a negative impact on his livelihood and his reputation, particularly since it was reported that he earned R1.9m in the post when this was not true.
Shaik says technically he was appointed as an adviser to Sisulu — she sought and obtained approval for him to come on board in that role, but the pair subsequently decided that he would serve the department better as part of its advisory committee on the stabilisation and efficient functioning of the water sector.
The committee assists with financial management within institutions in the water sector, investigating maladministration, fraud, corruption and other misconduct. It also offers aid in labour relations, governance and supply chain matters and provides policy advice to the department.
Shaik says his role in particular was to assist the committee to focus on investment and funding for water infrastructure, due to his experience at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
The 13-member committee, according to a notice from the acting director-general of the department, was appointed on a part-time basis in terms of chapter 9 of the National Water Act.
Shaik says the committee members may work for a maximum of 15 days a month and earn about R7,000 a day.
He says that the most he has earned from his work on the committee in the two months he has served on it was R25,000.
The reputational damage he says he suffered was compounded by DA allegations that Shaik was part of a coterie of advisers appointed to assist Sisulu with her campaign to topple President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"I am pleading for this to stop. It is absolute rubbish," he says.
Sisulu in a statement last month defended her decision to appoint Shaik and Simelane, saying that she was entitled to special advisers and that she had obtained the necessary approval for the appointments.
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