TSHWANE - The controversy surrounding Murunwa Makwarela's resignation as Tshwane mayor has highlighted the importance of vetting.
Harlan Cloete, a research fellow at the University of The Free State, says all public office bearers should be subjected to a stringent vetting process.
"People join political parties and people are often taken on the basis of their credentials you know, but the onus still remains on political parties to vet these candidates so what this shows, whether you're a professor or you're a doctor or an engineer.
"There is still the possibility that the person may not act ethically in public office, and it is also, I think,very tempting for political parties to have people with supposed good standing and academic credentials to join that party and sometimes that is overlooked like we've now seen, is that the person was taken on face value, based on the person's qualifications and like you rightly said, it was that the person managed to be under the radar for a long time," Cloete said.
"Like we've seen in many cases in our country, it is often whistleblowers that then bring these facts to the surface and then it exposes candidates.
"I think the lesson to be learnt for all political parties, is that candidates should not be taken at face value or on their academic qualifications but that they still need to go through a stringent vetting process to ensure that the public representatives do not end up embarrassing the party."