Newly appointed justice and constitutional development minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has been drawn into allegations of interference and protecting a senior official accused of wrongdoing at her previous posting at the department of human settlements.
It has emerged that Kubayi, whose new position was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday, in one of her last acts as human settlements minister, instructed that the suspended chief financial officer (CFO) of the Community Schemes Ombud Services (CSOS), Thembelihle Mbatha, be reinstated.
Mbatha was suspended by the outgoing CSOS board last week, pending disciplinary action over a security breach in which two unknown men accompanied by her personal assistant (PA) entered CSOS' premises in Centurion to check her office for listening devices. This unauthorised visit, on August 24 (a Saturday) was at her instruction, documents seen by the Sunday Times show.
The cabinet announced a new board for CSOS on Wednesday, a day after Ramaphosa announced his cabinet reshuffle, after the previous board’s term came to an end on November 30.
“I should not be speaking about this before I have had an opportunity to do a proper handover to the new human settlements minister [Thembi Simelane], but I feel I must give clarity,” Kubayi told the Sunday Times on Saturday.
“My concern ... is that most of the time the government loses cases not because people are not guilty, but because procedures have not been followed. So what the board needed to do was to take a decision, send a letter to the minister requesting concurrence to suspend, and then notify the CFO that ‘we are placing you on suspension’.”
“On the eve of their term expiring, they make a decision and do not write to me. The next thing I received was a request to appoint a CFO.
“My legal team said this is procedurally problematic, if you are asked to sign an affidavit, what will you say? I did not even get the courtesy of a phone call,” she added.
On Saturday, after questions from the Sunday Times, CSOS executives dug in their heels and informed Mbatha, through a text message, that she was again suspended as the organisation was now seeking legal opinion on whether to implement the verbal instruction from the minister and whether she had the authority to instruct that a board resolution be reversed.
A CSOS spokesperson said: “The decision to suspend the CFO for a security breach remains in effect, based on legal advice.”
Several sources, including one with direct knowledge of the matter, related how Kubayi, upon learning of Mbatha’s suspension last week, instructed CSOS acting CEO Kedibone Phetla to reverse the suspension. The instruction left many at CSOS unhappy and alleging Mbatha was being protected.
CSOS, a state-owned entity charged with regulation of community schemes, has been mired in controversy related to governance breaches, procurement irregularities, as well as general mismanagement
Mbatha was placed on suspension, via a letter from then CSOS board chairperson Phindile Mthethwa, on November 26 after a board meeting.
“It was bizarre that the instruction was over the phone and not written, because it gives one the sense that it is irregular,” said a source. “The question to ask is why the minister saw fit to interfere when CSOS is acting on credible facts including CCTV footage of the breach.”
Another source said: “The minister initially tried to say the board had no powers to suspend Lihle [Mbatha] because its term of office had ended, but when Kedibone told her the resolution was made on November 26, she suddenly changed tune and said the board should have consulted her first.
“What is most concerning here is that the minister is aware that the CFO was already facing allegations of procurement irregularity and other issues, and then brings unknown people to her office to do unknown things.”
CSOS, a state-owned entity charged with regulation of community schemes, has been mired in controversy related to governance breaches, procurement irregularities, as well as general mismanagement.
Earlier this year, the Sunday Times revealed an investigation report which highlighted flawed procurement processes in contracts worth hundreds of millions of rand. Many of these were signed when Mbatha was CFO or acting CEO, and one of the report’s recommendations is for disciplinary action against her for her alleged involvement.
Kubayi on Saturday said the outgoing board had also failed to update her office on how that report, and its recommendations, would be processed despite an instruction to do so.
When contacted Mbatha confirmed that she had been placed on suspension, “for two days or so”, and that the minister had stepped in to reverse it.
“That suspension was unlawful and did not follow proper processes, including receiving concurrence from the Minister as required in the CSOS Act,” she said. “It was nothing more than an attempt to tarnish my image as a professional, and came after I had informed the board that I am worried about my safety.
“When you start cleaning up procurement you are bound to make people unhappy, and this is an example of that. Now that they have failed internally to try and deal with me, they are now coming out to the media to try and succeed at punishing me for protected disclosures about them,” Mbatha added.
An investigation report into the incident, which recommended action against Mbatha and her PA, found that both had breached CSOS security management policy, and opened up the organisation to potential loss of information, bugging, or hacking. This was because they did not follow processes, which requires that facilities officials need to be informed during the week if anyone wishes to visit the offices on a weekend - or holiday.
The PA, when she arrived on Saturday and asked for permission, also failed to inform the official who opened the doors for her remotely, that she was with others who were not CSOS employees, and that some of them would do a security scan of the CFO’s office. She only told them she was there because she was asked by the CFO to collect personal documents.
The report also cited statements from Mbatha and the PA, who both confirmed that the two men were there with the PA to do a security scan of her office.
“She [Mbatha] informed us that her concerns were triggered by her discovery that her office had been unlocked when she had left it locked, and her discovery of some ashes on her office balcony,” the report said.
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