Suspended public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been painted, at the Section 194 parliamentary committee, as a merciless tyrant who victimises her staff.
She was described, by many witness before the committee investigating her fitness for office, as a rigid and uncaring boss.
On Monday, former Chief Operating Officer Basani Baloyi gave evidence about an alleged culture of fear during Mkhwebane’s reign. The committee heard that Mkhwebane is an autocratic leader who demands to be “bowed down to, literally”.
Baloyi described Mkhwebane as an authoritarian, she said she demanded to be addressed as “madam” instead of by name. She said people called her “Busi” only in her absence.
Said Baloyi: “The public protector’s leadership style was authoritarian. She must be addressed as ‘madam’. She must be bowed down to, quite literally. Her style of leadership was characterised by inflexibility, irrationality, and a failure or refusal to treat her staff with dignity and respect.”
Baloyi’s testimony comes after that of the office’s head of corporate services Gumbi Tyelela, who told parliament last week that Mkhwebane wanted to fire former spokesperson Cleo Mosana for calling her by name.
“I have worked with various MECs and ministers but you know when the public protector walks from her office to the boardroom, we had to rise, which I found an anomaly [because] this is not a person who walks in as an executive authority,” said Baloyi.
“Most of the MECs and ministers I’ve worked with did not actually do that. I just felt that when you are at that particular level, you know, you need to deal with matters in a manner that you understand your team and you understand your environment.”
According to Baloyi, Mkhwebane also set “unrealistic deadlines” and has a “complete lack of trust” in senior staff.
Ponatshego Mokgaladi, the office’s executive manager for investigations told the committee that Mkhwebane sought to fire her and two others after a high court set aside a report they were pressured to complete.
Mogaladi detailed the pressure investigators were put under to complete the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) investigation notwithstanding the challenges they faced.
The disgruntled investigator said the veracity of the report was compromised as a result.
“The report didn’t go through some of the quality assurance processes we had in the office because we only had a day to finalise it,” she said.
Mogaladi said the public protector threatened her with disciplinary action after she failed to meet various deadlines. She told the committee that she fully experienced the public protector’s rigidity when she was dealing with the trauma of losing an immediate family member, her niece.
“I phoned the public protector immediately [to tell her] that I had to travel to Polokwane because my niece collapsed on Sunday 13 April 2018 and the doctors had to perform urgent surgery that evening. I sent a WhatsApp message to the public protector on Monday updating her.”
Mogaladi said Mkhwebane was supportive when her niece died a day after the surgery but a day later she was expected to produce six outstanding reports or face disciplinary action.
Mogaladi said she believes that the way her disciplinary action was done amounted to victimization.
Mogaladi told the committee that late investigator Abongile Madiba was also victimized. It is alleged that Mkhwebane compelled Madiba to work even though he was terminally ill and unfit to work. Madiba died from a stroke a month after the report was completed.
Mogaladi, who joined the office in December 2000, said though she grew into higher ranks within the office, her remuneration remained the same.
The committee heard that when she accepted an offer to manage the Good Governance and Integrity unit, she was not afforded an opportunity to familiarise herself with the workload. She said within three days of assuming the post, she was requested to finalise the FSCA report.
Mogaladi said she expressed her frustration but was not assisted. Instead, she was told that the report and many others were long overdue even before she took over. “The public protector wanted them [completed]”.
Mkhwebane has not only been accused of cruelty but also corruption. When the inquiry commenced in July, the committee heard that Mkhwenane shielded politicians from adverse findings.
The testimony given by Teboho Kekana and Sphelo Samuel sought to demonstrate to the committee that Mkhwebane was protecting the perpetrators not the public as required of her.
Samuel corroborated Kekana’s testimony that Mkhwebane fiddled with reports to protect politicians.
Samuel shone the light on the Vrede Dairy Farm scandal, revealing that former Free State premier Ace Magashule and his agriculture MEC Mosebenzi Zwane were implicated in wrongdoing.
Samuel said he made the findings that Magashule and Zwane were culpable and had to be held liable because they had overall responsibility adding that the duo would not respond to the investigators’ requests for clarity.
Samuel further testified that Mkhwebane would also not allow the investigators to issue subpoenas for the two politicians to force them to account.
He said that she instructed him not to make findings against the politicians implicated in the Vrede Dairy Farm crimes.
The committee heard that Mkhwebane dismissed Samuel in anger after he defied that instruction.
Samuel told the committee that he believed he was targeted because the disciplinary action into his purported misconduct only began after he had complained to the Speaker of the National Assembly against Mkhwebane.
Samuel said he was not given a fair hearing and his dismissal was later nullified by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA).
He said he could only participate on the first day of the hearing, adding that he felt compelled to take the matter up with the CCMA and was exonerated.
Committee member and DA Shadow MP for Basic Education Bax Nodada asked Samuel to give more detail on the CCMA judgment that led to his reinstatement.
Samuel said CCMA commissioner James Ngoako Motshekga found that Mkhwebane had subjected him to a disciplinary hearing because of “anger” because of his request for the Speaker to investigate Mkhwebane and the financial mismanagement at the Chapter 9 institution.
Read the judgment: “The disciplinary action against the applicant is a clear demonstration of anger. Anger at the applicant’s request to Modise on 11 February 2020 and the contents of his affidavit. The charges have no basis in law and fact.
“The desperation the respondent [Mkhwebane] showed by charging the applicant [Samuel] with incitement is contrary to and flies in the [face of] one of its guiding principles as contained in its Disciplinary Management Policy and Procedure, which is to not discipline in anger.”
Motshekga ordered that Samuel be reinstated by no later than July 4 2022 and be paid R1.5-million in backpay.
So far the committee has heard from 13 witnesses against Mkhwebane.
Also read: Mkhwebane fails in bid to subpoena Ramaphosa
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