Probe pans Tolashe over illegal DG contract

Social development minister Sisisi Tolashe commissioned an investigation into the irregular appointment of her director-general — and then refused to co-operate with it, the Sunday Times can reveal.

A forensic report titled “Flawed from the Start”, compiled by law firm Mketsu & Associates and completed in October 2025, found that Tolashe would not help investigators probing how Fhumulani Netshipale came to be appointed for five years despite the cabinet approving only a one-year term with a possible two-year extension.

Investigators concluded that it was “highly unlikely” Tolashe was unaware that the contract contradicted the cabinet’s decision and “highly unlikely” that her electronic signature was used without her knowledge or approval.

The report repeatedly identifies Tolashe’s silence as central to its findings.

Written questions submitted to the minister through departmental officials “were unanswered and/or not clarified”, leaving “key questions” unresolved by the time the probe concluded. Her failure to explain events “that ought to be within her knowledge”, the report states, created the impression she “was not willing to set the record straight”.

The cabinet approved Netshipale’s appointment on March 26 2025 for a fixed one-year term, citing his approaching retirement age. Less than three weeks later, a letter dated April 14 — bearing the electronic signature of public service & administration minister Elphas Mfakazeleni Buthelezi — stated that the cabinet had approved a five-year term. Buthelezi later denied signing it.

On that same day, Tolashe and Netshipale allegedly concluded a five-year employment contract valued at more than R2.2m a year. Tolashe subsequently denied signing it and claimed she had never seen the department of public service & administration (DPSA) appointment letter.

Investigators found her version increasingly implausible. Her own parliamentary conduct undermined it: in May 2025, responding to a question from DA MP Alexandra Abrahams, Tolashe confirmed Netshipale’s contract was for “5 years (2025–2030)”. When Abrahams pressed the department on how the cabinet could approve a five-year term for a candidate nearing retirement, officials drafted a further response defending the appointment’s legality — a response investigators found was approved by Netshipale himself, despite his own admitted knowledge that the cabinet had sanctioned only one year.

Netshipale told investigators he was “in a rush” when the contract was brought to him late in the day and assumed everything was in order because the minister’s signature already appeared on the document. He insisted he never intended to serve beyond the age of 66 and said he would not oppose reverting to a one-year term.

Investigators were unmoved. “Mr Netshipale signed his employment contract with full knowledge that the duration thereof was inconsistent with what cabinet had approved,” the report says, calling his conduct “a huge blot on his honesty, professionalism and integrity”.

The paper trail shows the irregularity was flagged internally. Senior registry clerk Rhulani Ngobeni testified that he warned the then chief of staff, Zanele Simmons, that the five-year term conflicted with the cabinet’s minutes and carried ethical implications for the minister. Simmons, he said, told him that Tolashe and Netshipale had discussed the matter and approved the contract.

Investigators never interviewed Simmons. Her contract was terminated one day after they were appointed, with the department citing a “breakdown in the trust relationship”.

Investigators instead relied on an affidavit Simmons filed in the labour court challenging her dismissal, in which she claimed Tolashe had personally instructed her to append the minister’s electronic signature after the discrepancy between the cabinet’s decision and the five-year contract was raised.

The report also found sufficient reason to suspect collusion between unnamed officials at the department of social development and the DPSA in engineering the five-year term.

The report ultimately rejected Tolashe’s portrayal of herself as an unwitting bystander. Her claim that she neither signed nor authorised the contract was, investigators found, “irreconcilable” with the fact that Netshipale had occupied the position since April 2025.

Her parliamentary response, they said, created the impression she had concluded a contract with Netshipale while aware of the discrepancy, which the report calls a “clerical error” she had done nothing to correct.

Despite repeatedly questioning her credibility, co-operation and knowledge of the appointment, the report stops short of recommending action against Tolashe.

Disciplinary recommendations were made against Netshipale alone, alongside calls for sweeping reforms to govern the use of ministerial signatures and the approval of parliamentary replies.