The Reinstatement Of Lumka Oliphant: What A Government Spokesperson Really Is

By Sandile Memela

Lumka Oliphant, former spokesperson at the Department of Social Development, has just been reinstated.

After all, she was fired for no good reason except that, for the longest time, ANC Ministers have thought that they are untouchable.

She was allegedly accused of leaking damaging information to the media when it was not necessarily so. The Minister herself, whose shenanigans were at the centre of the storm, was ultimately released. The spokesperson fell; the political principal walked away.

The Oliphant case is not personal. It is structural. It exposes the crisis at the heart of government communication in South Africa.

The plight of spokespersons in government is that they are expected to be gatekeepers who cover up corruption and everything that is wrong, especially corrupt activities. No doubt, this is traumatic. They are compelled to do so for their survival. To protect and preserve their middle-class lifestyles.

Thus, the spokesperson must defend the indefensible at 8 am on the radio, knowing the files say the opposite. To refuse is to be labelled disloyal, a leaker, “unpredictable”. To comply is to lose your soul.

Now that Oliphant has been reinstated, we must encourage the new GCIS Director-General, Lloyd Nedohe, to use this moment to redefine what a spokesperson is, and what it is not. This is not about personality. It is about principle.

A Spokesperson Is Not A Spin Doctor

Many Ministers believe the spokesperson is their personal public relations agent. They are wrong.

In terms of Section 32 of the Constitution, every citizen has the right of access to information. In terms of Section 195, public administration must be transparent, accountable and foster access to information. The spokesperson is the human instrument of those two constitutional provisions.

You are not appointed to make the Minister look good. You don’t hold that position to defend and justify nonsense. You are appointed to make the department understandable to the people who own it, the public.

When a department spends R1 billion on social grants, on food parcels, on SASSA, the spokesperson must be able to tell the public, factually and timeously, how that money was spent. That is not a favour. That is the job.

Batho Pele Principle 1: Truthfulness

Truthfulness means factual accuracy and correct information. Not “my truth” or “the Minister’s truth”, but verifiable truth.

If SASSA has not paid 100,000 grants, you cannot say, “Payments are proceeding smoothly.” You say: “We have a backlog of 100,000 due to a system failure. Here is what we are doing. Here is the timeline.”

A spokesperson who lies loses the only capital she has: credibility. Once a journalist catches you in a lie, you are finished. When you defend ‘skeleton-nyana‘, you are a joke. You have not protected the Minister; you have destroyed the department’s reputation. Above all, your own integrity.

Oliphant’s alleged sin, leaking damaging info, is often what happens when internal channels for truth are closed.

When a spokesperson sees corruption and is told to keep quiet, she has two choices: become complicit or become a whistleblower.

Principle 2: Transparency

Most government communication is reactive: wait for News24 or AmaBhungane to expose something, then issue a denial. Real transparency is proactive.

It is publishing the quarterly expenditure report before you are asked. It is putting the beneficiary list online. It is explaining the criteria for NGOs to be funded.

Transparency protects the spokesperson. If you have already told the public that the tender for blankets was awarded to Company X after an open process, you do not need to panic when a journalist calls. You refer them to the record.

In Social Development, where the clients are the poorest, the blind, the disabled, the orphaned, transparency is not a bureaucratic nicety. It is a moral duty. To hide information about social relief is to steal from people who cannot see the theft.

Principle 3: Honesty

Truth is about facts. Honesty is about intent. You can be truthful but dishonest.

For example: “No money was stolen” is technically true because it was “irregularly expended” to a relative. Even the Office of the Auditor-General tells us about “irregular expenditure” every year. That is truthful but dishonest. Honesty means not manipulating language to mislead. It means not using jargon to hide theft.

“The project experienced challenges in the SCM value chain” is dishonest. “The tender was given to the Minister’s cousin without following procedure” is honest.

An honest spokesperson admits: “We failed. We are sorry. Here is how we fix it.” The public forgives failure. It never forgives dishonesty.

Principle 4: Access To Information

The worst title for a spokesperson is “gatekeeper”. A gatekeeper decides who enters and who does not. A bridge connects. Your job is to ensure access.

That means answering the phone. Responding to a journalist within hours, not days. Not asking, “What is your angle?” as a way to block them. It means understanding PAIA, the Promotion of Access to Information Act, and not using it to frustrate access.

Access also means accessibility. There are far too many spokespersons who do not speak indigenous languages. Can a gogo in Limpopo understand your press release? Can a blind person access your website? Did you translate that announcement about SRD grants into all official languages? If not, you have not provided access. You have provided a press release for Pretoria. For the privileged classes.

One can only hope that both Nedohe and Oliphant understand this. The latter has always been feisty, direct and available. She must never hide behind “the Minister is not available”.

Loyalty vs Integrity

This is the trauma of every government spokesperson. You are expected to be loyal to the Minister, but faithful to the Constitution. When those two conflict, what do you do?

Your ultimate loyalty is to the Constitution and the public, not to the politician who hired you. The Minister is temporary. The department is permanent. The people are sovereign.

This is why Oliphant’s reinstatement must mark a turning point. It must redefine the relationship between abuse of political power and media spokespersons.

Ministers must learn that spokespersons are not personal servants. Far too many spokespersons have reduced themselves to that. They are guardians of objective truth about how state resources are spent.

We need structural protection: a professional code for government communicators, independent of Ministers; security of tenure so you cannot be fired for refusing to lie; and a direct reporting line to the Director-General, not just the Minister.

Oliphant is a feisty woman who has been in government for a long time. She has seen Ministers come and go. She has served under difficult conditions where corruption is not just theft; it is cruelty. A lot of corruption happened under her watch.

At this point, she knows what is right. We can only hope she will be a moral compass in government communications, and that her reinstatement will embolden other spokespersons to say: “I will not lie for you.”

Her return should not be seen as a personal victory only. It should be a precedent: that you cannot fire a professional communicator for refusing to be a cover-up artist; that political power ends where professional truth begins.

Welcome back, Lumka.

Sandile Memela is a veteran journalist, writer, cultural critic and former government spokesperson. He writes in his personal capacity.