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There is, arguably, a high prospect of success on this matter, as the basis of such prospect lies on the fact that the award given to the first respondent (Office of the Premier) was improperly obtained because the arbitration proceedings were tainted by perjured evidence. - Nehawu

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Former Limpopo government spokesperson Phuti Seloba’s union has accused provincial Director-General, Nape Nchabeleng, of presenting a fake intelligence letter before a disciplinary and an arbitration hearing to bolster his aim to dismiss him.

Nchabeleng fired Seloba in 2020 after a disciplinary tribunal found him guilty of misconduct emanating from claims by former EFF Limpopo leader Jossey Buthane that Seloba badmouthed Premier Stanley Mathabatha to him and revealed information about cabinet members.

Buthane  wrote on Facebook claiming that Seloba told him that Mathabatha sometimes missed important meetings because of alcohol consumption.

Buthane also posted that Mathabatha, at one stage, wanted to force an international trip with Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba "so he could be with Ramathuba," even though there was a moratorium on such trips.  He alleged that he had spoken ill of former MECs Onicca Moloi and Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana.

Seloba’s union, the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), has filed papers to the Labour Court to overturn an award that the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council (GPSSBC) handed to the Office of the Premier confirming his dismissal.

The GPSSBC had supported the disciplinary tribunal’s sanction by confirming that Seloba’s dismissal was procedurally and substantively fair.

According to an affidavit deposed by Nehawu’s representative, Matome Phooko, to the Labour Court for review of the GPSSBC award, Nchabeleng used a fake State Security Agency (SSA) letter to fortify the case for Seloba’s dismissal.

“There is, arguably, a high prospect of success on this matter, as the basis of such prospect lies on the fact that the award given to the first respondent (Office of the Premier) was improperly obtained because the arbitration proceedings were tainted by perjured evidence,” Phooko wrote.

Phooko dismisses contents of the SSA letter that Nchabeleng presented as fake. The letter claims that Seloba was not vetted and had refused to co-operate when intelligence officials approached him in 2013.

In 2023, Seloba was working as spokesperson in the provincial Department of Health. On July 25 2013, the then Health MEC Letsatsi Duba approved Seloba’s transfer to the Department of Education. The transfer was approved on July 26 and he moved immediately.

The SSA letter claims that Duba requested for Seloba’s vetting on September 18 2013 when he was no longer an employee of the department.

Phooko argues that according to the Public Service Regulations and Senior Management Service Handbook, only the executive authority of a department to which the subject of vetting is employed can make a request for his vetting.

“A letter of the fourth respondent (SSA) was relied on, and a premise was laid that the applicant (Seloba) was not vetted, and furthermore, that a member who is not vetted puts the administration into disrepute as he attends executive meetings. The testimony was given by the Director-General (Nchabeleng) and not an official of [SSA],” he said.

Phooko said that the letter proved arrangement between the departments of Health, Education, the Office of the Premier and SSA to create grounds for Seloba to be unfairly dismissed.

“The DG and SSA officials forged or uttered a forged document knowing that the information contained therein in false and thus constituting perjured evidence,” he added.