Roads and transport department’s chief director of management services Gregory Brown has been suspended.
Spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie confirmed to the Dispatch this week that Brown “has been put on precautionary suspension, following an internal investigation”.
She said a report compiled following an internal investigation recommended that he be put on precautionary suspension, “to allow for a further probe into matters raised”.
Brown’s suspension last week comes while workers are still awaiting outcomes of the public service commission investigation into irregular appointments of some senior officials. The three unions – Nehawu, Popcru and PSA – accuse the department of protracted inaction against DDG Lomex Sisilana after he was allegedly appointed to the position in 2015 without proper qualifications.
The unions allege Sisilana did not meet the minimum requirements for the top job as he only had a junior degree.
The Dispatch reported last month that Rantjie confirmed that they were aware of a probe by the PSC into allegations of irregular appointments, including that of Sisilana.
“We’re co-operating with that probe and will await its outcome and take appropriate action thereafter," she said. In one of the unions’ first letters to the now suspended HoD Irene Mpolweni, dated June last year, they demanded that Sisilana recuse himself from all duties.
Mpolweni suspended Sisilana along with three other senior officials over allegations a few weeks later in relation to the downgrading of the Mthatha airport earlier this year.
But transport MEC Weziwe Tikana instructed Mpolweni to reinstate the four, and a few weeks after than, premier Phumulo Masualle announced his decision to suspend Mpolweni instead for the grounding of commercial flights at the Mthatha airport.
Brown is viewed as one of the officials who is siding with Mpolweni against the MEC, but no one was willing to detail, on the record, the reasons for his suspension.
Contacted on Tuesday, Brown said: “I am in no position to comment on the developments. “The department has a spokesperson to comment to the media. I’m in no position to do so except to say, yes I have been put on precautionary suspension.”
Rantjie was also not willing to discuss the reasons Brown had been suspended, only saying: “The department is not in a position to disclose the details of this report as this is an employer-employee contractual labour matter”...