Call to release sex-for-jobs report

A FORMER Bhisho legislature employee fired for alleging that some senior administration bosses at the institution were sleeping with juniors and interns in exchange for promotions, is demanding the release of the sex-for-jobs report.

Dismissed legislature whistleblower Luzuko Kerr Hoho, author of the “Father Punch” newsletter that exposed alleged irregularities, wrote to the legislature last week demanding that the report be released.

Hoho yesterday confirmed writing to the legislature and said the release of the report would strengthen the Labour Court appeal challenging his 2012 dismissal.

Hoho wrote to administration head Vuyani Mapolisa and speaker Noxolo Kiviet demanding that the Neela Hoosain Commission report be made public.

Hoho was found guilty of compiling the controversial poison-pen newsletter dubbed “Father Punch”.

In the newsletter, he anonymously accused various MPLs, provincial politicians and senior civil servants of embezzlement, corruption, bribery and fraud.

He also accused some senior civil servants of soliciting sexual favours from junior employees.

The Bhisho High Court later convicted Hoho on 22 charges of criminal defamation and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years.

In October 2011, the legislature charged him with bringing it into disrepute and failing to comply with a written instruction to desist from disseminating abusive information. He was found guilty and fired. He later went to the CCMA, which in November 2012 found him guilty of serious acts of misconduct and ruled that his dismissal be upheld.

Hoho took the matter to the Labour Court, which in November 2014 found his dismissal unfair, set it aside, and ordered that he be allowed to return to work.

However, the legislature is appealing against the decision.

In the wake of Hoho’s claims, and at the insistence of a labour union at the legislature, Kiviet sanctioned an investigation into allegations of sex for jobs, flouting of recruitment policies, alleged corruption and nepotism.

The commission found various irregularities as claimed, and implicated three senior administrators.