Staff reporter
Bloemfontein – While all eyes are on the implementation of the Free State High Court judgment that set aside all actions and decisions taken by the then Acting Head of Department, Dr Masego Tshabalala, following the dismissal of Normal Selai, we crack it open.
The judgment by Judge Corne van Zyl will go down in history as one that cemented Selai’s name among those who refused to back down.
It does not just open a can of worms; a volcano is about to erupt.
The very first story this publication wrote when Joyce Mathae was sworn in has aged well.
Mathae threatened contractors with termination if they did not “plough back” and Patrick Phuti happened.
In that meeting, she was not alone. She was accompanied by Dr Tshabalala, and within weeks, some of those contractors were terminated.
Legally, the question now is whether Mathae had the authority to terminate any contractor at the time, and whether she has such authority even now. The answer is no but in her head she thinks she has but she doesn’t know.
Tshabalala, as the Accounting Officer, would have had the authority if the applicable legal and procurement framework empowered her to do so.
PATRICK “The Butcher” PHUTI
Few months later a business man accused and implicated Mathae and her husband in corruption. Evidence including bank statement in our possession speaks volume but we will leave than to law enforcement agencies.
The department awarded a R269 million tender to PHUTI against its own legal opinion it sought and the very same Advocate who warned against awarding the tender was transferred by the very same Head of Department.
This could potentially open another legal front, with terminated contractors able to challenge the decisions and, depending on the circumstances and findings of a court, potentially pursue claims against those responsible in their personal capacities.
It has now been more than three weeks since the judgment was handed down, yet the Free State Provincial Government has not released a statement on it.
This is in stark contrast to the response when the SIU released its bursary report, when the provincial government was quick to put out its version of events.
The silence surrounding the High Court judgment is therefore becoming difficult to ignore.
Selai must send them to jail for contempt and attach government bank account kube lovely.
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