Premier gives new official till year-end to clear up her firing by fisheries dept

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has given a newly appointed Bhisho head of department until the end of December to clear the issue of her being fired from the national department of agriculture, forestry & fisheries.

Siphokazi Ndudane, who was deputy director-general for fisheries management until last Friday, was fired last week for the alleged theft of abalone worth R7m.

Ndudane has denied any wrongdoing.

When the news got out about the outcome of her disciplinary hearing, she had already been appointed as Bhisho’s new head of rural development and agrarian reform.

Mabuyane’s spokesperson Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha said yesterday: “At the time when Ms Siphokazi Ndudane was appointed by the Eastern Cape provincial government she was not fired by her former employer and had not gone to the disciplinary hearing.

“She was on a protracted suspension. She voluntarily declared the suspension to the interviewing panel.”

He said: “The premier only got to know about the letter of her dismissal after she had been appointed to the position.

“Even the letter being paraded on social media was signed after she had been appointed by the Eastern Cape provincial government”.

Sicwetsha said Mabuyane has spoken to Ndudane to deal with the matter between her and her former employer.

“This means she has between now and the end of December 2019 to sort out and clear this issue.

“The premier is also interacting with her former employer, Minister Thoko Didiza on this issue.

“The focus of that interaction is to first get the report of the outcomes of the disciplinary process initiated by her former employer.

“The premier is also engaging the legal team of the provincial government to look at the legal matters of this issue given the latest development,” Sicwetsha said.

DA Eastern Cape MPL Retief Odendaal said the party was shocked that she had  still been selected for the job while facing serious disciplinary charges.

According to Ndudane’s dismissal letter, she was shown the door from the fisheries department on November 29 after she was found guilty of stealing three tons of abalone, valued at approximately R7m.

The letter – signed by director-general Mike Mlengana – states that the decision to sack Ndudane was arrived at after a disciplinary hearing that lasted four days.

Mlengana confirmed on Wednesday that Ndudane had been dismissed.

The dismissal letter reads: “You were charged in terms of public service co-coordinating bargaining council (PSCBC) resolution no 1 of 2003, read with chapter 7 of the SMS Handbook. The disciplinary hearing took place from 25 to 29 November 2019.

“The chair found you guilty of theft of three tons of abalone to the value of approximately R7m from the department’s stores in Paarden Island in December 2017 or January 2018.

“Having considered all the evidence and having heard argument from the initiator, the chair pronounced a sanction of dismissal as the only possible sanction to be imposed upon you.

“This misconduct is of a serious nature and deserves to be eradicated and deterred within the department in order to better achieve the goals of the department and broader public. I therefore give effect to the sanction pronounced by the chair of the disciplinary hearing.”

Ndudane denied that she ever stole the abalone.

“I deny the allegations of theft of three tons of abalone. There was nothing unlawful, misrepresenting nor false about the operation since an approved 252A request was received from the directorate of public prosecutions by the police,” she said in a written reply.

“Therefore, until the conclusion of the NPA investigations, the DG could not have established the facts —  hence I deny the allegations as nothing but defamation.”

Ndudane said it was laughable that Mlengana had written her a dismissal letter when she had already resigned on November 12.

“On November 25 to 29, after the DG accepted my resignation, he decides to run a disciplinary hearing, which he has been postponing since June 14 2018. I was not present in the hearing,” she said.

She threatened legal action against Mlengana and the department “to challenge the legality” of her dismissal as well as a “brazen disregard of the rule of law”.

Questioned about her new job in the Eastern Cape, Ndudane said she did not declare her dismissal to her new employer because “the letter of the DG was emailed to me at 3.45pm on November 29 and I was already appointed in the EC”.