News24 | Public Protector recuses herself in probe into Parly secretary over ‘romantic’ relationship

Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka recused herself from an investigation after declaring a conflict of interest due to her relationship with Xolile George.

• The DA recently lodged a complaint with the Public Protector, advocate Kholeka Gcaleka, about Parliament secretary Xolile George’s salary increase of more than 88% since 2022.
• The party’s complaint also reported the alleged misappropriation of funds relating to a BRICS summit at Emperor’s Palace in 2023.
• Gcaleka has recused herself from the investigation.

Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has recused herself from the investigation into how Secretary to Parliament Xolile George’s salary ballooned more than 88% since 2022.

She excused herself from the investigation because she is in a relationship with him.

The DA now wants to know whether this was disclosed.

Earlier this month, the party lodged a complaint with Gcaleka’s office about, among other things, George’s salary increase of more than 88% since 2022, and the misappropriation of funds relating to the BRICS summit at Emperor’s Palace in 2023.

The DA also wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa, requesting that he sign a proclamation for a Special Investigating Unit probe into the matter.

In a letter to Ramaphosa, the party recently said George was appointed in 2022, “ostensibly on a five-year performance-based contract with an annual salary of R2.6 million, his package was swiftly increased to R4.4 million – a more than 70% increase – not six months into his position”.

READ | DA asks Public Protector, SIU to investigate Xolile George’s appointment and salary hike

DA chief whip George Michalakis received a letter from Gcaleka on 11 February 2026, where she replied to the DA’s enquiry after it had come to the party’s attention that the Public Protector and Secretary to Parliament were “allegedly in a romantic relationship”.

When she received the complaint, Gcaleka said in her letter, she “immediately disclosed” to Public Protector chief operations officer advocate Nelisiwe Nkabinde and head of legal services advocate Neels van der Merwe that she “may reasonably be perceived to have a conflict between my private interests and my official duties in this matter”.

In the letter, which Michalakis attached to a DA statement on Monday, Gcaleka said: “I have recused myself from any involvement in the handling of the complaint or in any decisions arising from it. The Public Protector’s functions under the [Public Protector Act] and the Constitution will, in respect of this matter, be performed by Deputy Public Protector advocate D Dube, in accordance with the provisions of section 2A[6] of the act.”

She wrote:

In the statement, Michalakis said the exact nature of the relationship between George and Gcaleka was none of his concern but was clearly of a nature that led the Public Protector to recuse herself.

“The question now is: did the Secretary to Parliament make a declaration to the executive authority of Parliament (the Speaker and chairperson of the National Council of Provinces), declaring the same possible conflict of interest?”

Michalakis said this was key, as Gcaleka was the head of a Chapter 9 institution that might well, in the future, be called on to investigate matters related to Parliament, where George was the accounting officer and therefore had an ethical obligation to disclose any possible conflict.

“In a response to the DA’s enquiry on the matter to the Speaker (Thoko Didiza), she declined to state whether this was done, stating that it ‘falls within the responsibility of the Office of the Public Protector to respond to the DA’.”

He added that this could not be any further from the truth, as the effect of such a conflict would impact George’s work as much as it would Gcaleka’s.

Michalakis said the DA would continue pressing the Speaker on the matter.

He shared a letter he had written to Didiza on Monday, in which he pushed back on her assertion that the alleged relationship between Gcaleka and George had nothing to do with her office.

READ | Parliament clarifies uproar over secretary Xolile George's salary, argues he was headhunted

“It is our view that, owing to the nature of the allegations raised in the complaint in question, the central role of the Secretary to Parliament in the same, the importance of ensuring the independence of the Public Protector, and your own duty of oversight as flows from your office as one leg of the executive.

“Authority of Parliament, that an equal obligation lies with the Secretary to Parliament to disclose possible conflicts of interest to you in full,” wrote Michalakis.

Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said: “Parliament will not entertain personal slander, speculation or reflections directed at officials, particularly where such commentary descends into intrusion on private personal relationships.”

Mothapo said there is no law or regulatory framework that requires officials to disclose personal relationships.

He added that attempts to demand such disclosures fall outside the scope of legitimate public accountability.

“The allegations relating to the office of the Secretary to Parliament (George) are already subject to an established and due committee-led oversight process,” Mothapo said.

“That process is the appropriate forum through which any substantive matters must be ventilated and considered.”

He said Parliament will not dignify or respond to commentary that “seeks to pry into the private lives of officials”.

Mothapo said private relationships have no bearing on the issues under consideration in the oversight process and don’t advance Parliament’s constitutional oversight mandate.

The Public Protector’s communications office had not responded to a query at the time of writing.