Johannesburg- Mapholoba Letswalo, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of the Mpumalanga department of agriculture, rural development and land reform intends to challenge his dismissal.
Letswalo was fired last week after being found guilty of gross misconduct.
The former CFO has been found guilty of writing and circulating a letter that accused premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, the head of department Mfana Chunda, and other officials of corruption.
“Yes, I am going to challenge the dismissal. My lawyers are already interacting with the department concerning the matter. I cannot divulge much about the case for now,” Letswalo told Sunday World this week.
“I think my dismissal was politically motivated, but for now, I cannot say much about it.”
He is accused of being behind the document titled Agric Looting, which was anonymously circulated to different media and to law-enforcement agencies and invited them to investigate corruption involving Chunda and other senior officials in the province. Soon after the document went viral, the department launched an internal investigation that found Letswalo was behind the plot.
Zanele Shabangu, the spokesperson for the department, agreed that Letswalo’s legal team had contacted the department to challenge his dismissal.
“Mr Letswalo is represented by Mpho Mashilonae Attorneys, who contacted us. The department responded by advising them to declare a dispute with the bargaining council,” said Shabangu.
Shabangu said as a senior employee, Letswalo should have followed the proper procedure for reporting crime.
“Mr Letswalo was dismissed for an act of misconduct. However, in terms of section 34(1) of Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act No 12 of 2004, any
person who holds a position of authority and who knows or ought reasonably to have known or suspected that any person has committed [a] an offence under part 1,2, 3 or 4, or section 20 or 21 [in so far as it relates to the aforementioned offences] of chapter 2; or [b] the offence of theft, fraud, extortion, forgery or uttering a forged document involving an amount of R100 000 or more, must report such knowledge or suspicion, or cause of such knowledge or suspicion to be reported to any police official,” said Shabangu.
She said the department investigated the corruption that Letswalo alleged was taking place and found that he was lying.
The letter in which the former CFO has been found guilty of drafting and circulating accused Chunda of plundering over R90-million in the Greening Badplaas Project, as well as other projects. A copy of Letswalo’s dismissal letter was seen by Sunday World and stated that he was found guilty of “fabrication, disseminating defamatory statements against the premier and the head of the department”.
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