Cape Times E-dition

Tensions revealed in Public Protector’s office

MAYIBONGWE MAQHINA mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za

THE Section 194 Committee heard yesterday that there was tension between the quality assurance unit and then acting chief-of-staff in the Office of the Public Protector.

This occurred over reports lawyers in the unit were supposed to submit to the office of then acting chief-of-staff Linda Molelekoa.

This was revealed by the institution's senior manager for support to the CEO's office, Futana Simon Tebele, when he testified at the inquiry into the fitness of Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane to hold office.

Tebele said the quality assurance team was based in the private office of Mkhwebane and was reporting to Molelekoa by virtue of her seniority.

“The PP had a direct link with the quality assurance team but in terms of managing information flow, they submitted reports to the office of the chief-of-staff and myself,” he said.

Tebele said acrimony arose because Molelekoa was not a lawyer, and questions were asked why lawyers were making submissions to her and that she supervised their work.“They started raising the issue of her not having legal qualifications and not being fit to quality assure their reports,” he said. Tebele said the tension worsened when quality assurance head Isaac Matlawe did not attend a session for the quality assurance of the CIEX report.

According to Tebele, Mkhwebane had asked the unit to work on a weekend to finalise the CIEX report. “We agreed we will come and indeed we came and Mr Matlawe did to pitch up on that day … He never indicated his commitment on that day.”

Asked about his statement in the affidavit that work was demanding at the Office of the Public Protector, Tebele said what compounded the problem was backlog cases that passed their finalisation timeline.

“She was not really happy with backlogs and things not moving let alone during investigation there are complainants speaking directly to the Public Protector about their dissatisfaction.”

Tebele said Mkhwebane demanded investigators had deadlines for the work they were doing. “She did not take kindly to the issue of the deadline not being met and in an institution where you had more than 160 people in the investigations.”

Tebele confirmed that he had seen Mkhwebane reprimand employees when they did not meet their deadlines and would even raise her voice when demanding the work. “In meetings I would have sat in where work was demanded. The Public Protector would talk about the investigators ignoring their commitments,” he said. He told of investigators being hammered for work not properly done.

“For me, I took it because of the work that was not forthcoming and that is why the executive authority reacted the way she reacted during those meetings,” Tebele said.

When evidence leader Ncumisa Mayosi said evidence would be led that harassment and victimisation of staff manifested by holding them to unrealistic deadlines, Tebele said he could not comment on the reasonableness or not of the deadlines.

“Those deadlines given and others were not adhered to, not even once. I did not know why they felt harassed by those deadlines,” he said. Testifying on the tensions at the institution under cross-examination by Mkhwebane's legal counsel Advocate Dali Mpofu, Tebele said the lawyers in the quality assurance unit had felt that Molelekoa was making input in terms of law and investigations.

He said he did not have qualms with the deadlines set as “the issue of putting a complainant first came high ” as delaying investigations inflicted secondary prejudice. “It was not because the deadlines were set for completing the reports but to get rid of backlogs.”

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2022-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://capetimes.pressreader.com/article/281487870111003

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