Call for criminal charges
Dismissed official must be investigated for abalone theft, demands DA deputy speaker
THE DA’s deputy speaker in the legislature Beverley Schäfer said she wanted criminal charges to be investigated against former deputy director-general Siphokazi Ndudane, who was dismissed a week ago by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
This after a disciplinary hearing ruled last month that Ndudane be dismissed after she was found guilty on theft of three tons of abalone to the value of R7 million from the department stores in Paarden Island in December 2017.
“Having considered all the evidence and having heard argument from the initiator, the chairperson pronounced a sanction of dismissal as the only possible sanction to be imposed.
“The misconduct is of a serious nature and deserves to be eradicated and deterred within the department in order to better achieve the goals of the department and broader public service,” the letter read.
It is alleged that five days after the dismissal Ndudane was appointed as the head of department of the Eastern Cape’s rural development and agrarian reform department. Her appointment was announced by Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane.
Schäfer said: “I’m going to follow up this with SAPS to find out how far they are in investigating this case. It is almost two years ago that I laid that complaint. I also wrote to the public protector who wrote back to me and said they would also investigate.
Meanwhile, Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha, said that at the time when Ndudane was appointed by the Eastern Cape provincial government, she was not fired by her former employer and had not gone to the disciplinary hearing.
“She was on a protracted suspension. She voluntarily declared the suspension to the interviewing panel. The premier only got to know about the letter of her dismissal after she had been appointed to the position.
“Now that the letter has come to the premier’s attention, he is interacting with Ndudane to deal with the matter between herself and her former employer. This means she has between now and the end of December 2019 to sort and clear the issue,” Sicwetsha said.