Rural Development Agency accused of cadre deployment

The placement process is among issues that are fuelling divisions between employees and top brass

Barely a month after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to probe serious maladministration allegations in the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency, including a R19.2bn tilapia fish farming project on the Wild Coast, the agency is now being hauled to court in a dispute over the placement of its staff into a new organigram.

The placement process is allegedly being used to advance cadre deployment and is among the issues that are fuelling divisions between agency employees and the top brass.

The Private and Public Service Union (Papsu) has filed an application for judicial review in the East London high court in an attempt to have the placement process scrutinised, saying it was flawed.

The agency, board chair Dr Nondumiso Maphazi, Lumka Chartered Accountants and Auditors Incorporated, interim chief executive Gcinumzi Qotywa and the placement review committee have all been listed as respondents in the union’s court papers.

Speaking to the Dispatch, Papsu secretary-general Thabo Mdila said a decision had been taken for the agency to embark on restructuring as part of its realignment with Vision 20202025.

“Restructuring meant that the organigram needed to change,” Mdila said.

“In that came the placement of the existing staff because some positions in the existing structure were going to disappear.”

Amid disagreements, a placement policy was formulated as some staff members were going to be moved to other positions.

According to Mdila, it later emerged that Calata House — the Qonce-based ANC provincial headquarters — planned to deploy its own people.

“Therefore, the existing staff members must be kept in junior positions — retaining the senior positions for cadres and that’s where the problem started,” he claimed.

“It became clear that the restructuring was done for other people outside [the agency].”

The agency is an entity of the provincial rural development and agrarian reform department.

MEC Nonkqubela Pieters’s spokesperson, Masiza Mazizi, declined to comment on the placement dispute and referred questions to the agency.

Agency spokesperson Nobatembu Pako confirmed that the agency had received the union’s court papers, but she would not comment further.

Through his lawyers, suspended agency chief executive Simon Qobo, who had a fallout with the board of directors over the placement process, has launched a bid to halt his disciplinary hearing until the finalisation of the union’s review application, saying it might have an impact on the outcome of his case.

The Dispatch has seen a letter from Qobo’s lawyers demanding that the agency put the hearing on hold.

However, Qobo remained tight-lipped this week.

“I am not comfortable expressing myself on the issue at this time, perhaps when the matter is finalised,” he said.

In their correspondence to the agency, Qobo’s legal representatives, Godongwana & Partners Inc, demanded that the agency stop the hearing.

Qobo is charged with “a serious misconduct” by allegedly stating that the Lekoko grading was approved by the board, among other charges.

He also allegedly committed the agency to the implementation of the job grades without approval of the board.

If found guilty at a hearing, Qobo could be dismissed.

“Without pronouncing on the merits or demerits of the said charges, we are of the view that whatever is the outcome of the disciplinary hearing may have an impact, one way or the other, on both our client as well as the department,,” the lawyers, acting on behalf of Qobo, wrote.

Mdila said when Qobo took the reins, the placement process had already been in its final stages.

ANC provincial spokesperson Loyiso Magqashela distanced the party from the cadre deployment allegations.

“On this matter, the organisation has no jurisdiction at all. You can check with the department,” he said.