Pule’s spin doctor hangs on to his job
Department considered him no longer necessary
DISGRACED former communications minister Dina Pule’s spin doctor has won an urgent bid to get his job back after being told he was no longer needed to correct her gaffes.
On Friday, Wisani Ngobeni obtained an order from the Johannesburg Labour Court allowing him to return to his job as the Department of Communication’s chief director of marketing and communications, pending settlement negotiations with the department.
Ngobeni approached the court last week to stop the new communications minister, Yunus Carrim, transferring him to Free State premier Ace Magashule’s office. Ngobeni, a former journalist, moved from the premier’s office to the department in April to help polish Pule’s sullied image.
But after Carrim took over in July, Ngobeni was told he was no longer needed and should return to the Free State. He was also offered an alternative position in the Department of Public Service and Administration, which he rejected.
Instead, Ngobeni headed to court, asking it to order his immediate reinstatement in the communications department in a position that earned him close to R1-million a year.
He also wanted an order stopping Carrim and the department’s director-general, Rosey Sekese, appointing anyone to the position until the finalisation of a dispute he lodged with the General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council.
In an agreement made a court order on Friday, Ngobeni and the department agreed to continue negotiating a settlement for another two weeks. Until the matter is finalised, Ngobeni will return to his job.
The department will look for a suitable, substantially similar post for Ngobeni. If he remains unsatisfied, the matter could head back to court.
Pule, who was removed from her post in July, was mired in controversy after a Sunday Times exposé revealed that her boyfriend had been awarded a lucrative contract for an indaba organised by her department, and that he had accompanied her on overseas trips at taxpayers’ expense.
The exposé led to an investigation by parliament’s ethics committee, which, in August, found Pule guilty of misconduct and lying under oath. She was suspended from parliament for 15 days, her salary was revoked for a month and she received a public reprimand from National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu.
Earlier this month, the department advertised Ngobeni’s position, which comes with an “allinclusive package of R934 866 per annum”. The closing date for applications was Friday, but Carrim and Sekese have undertaken not to fill the vacancy until Ngobeni’s matter is resolved.
In court papers, the department claims Ngobeni was seconded — not transferred — from the Free State government. In her affidavit, Sekese says the “secondment” had to be understood in context.
“The former minister of communications was experiencing negative publicity arising from certain allegations that were made against her and in connection with certain persons allegedly connected to her.
“It was in these circumstances that she considered the secondment of the applicant,” she said.
“Those considerations are no longer relevant to the current minister of communications.”
During his tenure at the department, Ngobeni lodged several complaints against this newspaper with the press ombudsman, who rejected his claims as spurious.
He also wrote an open letter to the Press Council, which criticised his “illogical conclusions”.