A chief director in the Presidency’s department of planning, monitoring & evaluation (DPME) is accused of having engineered his own appointment to the post, and then of having taken charge of a disciplinary process in which he was both judge and offender.
Ntabozuko Nomlala, the DPME’s head of human resources and corporate services, allegedly gave himself a verbal warning after the disciplinary process, which was held after he appointed a vehicle fleet manager who did not have the requisite driver’s licence.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) found that Nomlala had been involved in the irregular appointment of various senior officials — including himself. Nomlala designed the job specifications for his permanent chief director position, helped shortlist candidates, and set up the interview panel that had hired him.
The department initiated a disciplinary process against Nomlala, which was never finalised because the presiding officer had resigned from the public service and ‘failed to produce a report and verdict’.
In June 2022 the National Health & Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and the Public Service Association (PSA) met with the then minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele to complain about Nomlala’s role in the three irregular appointments.
In 2020 Nomlala tried to persuade DPME director-general Robert Nkuna that there was no need for any further action against those implicated in the irregular appointments because he had already taken corrective measures, which in most cases involved verbal warnings.
A letter signed by Nomlala lists officials who received warnings: ‘Progressive disciplinary action in the form of verbal warning was taken… against Mr N Nomlala’.
In response the unions argued that the implicated officials had faced no disciplinary action at all, and as one of the accused, Nomlala could not also act as judge.