Africa-Press – South-Africa. The General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council (GPSSBC) found that Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille instituted unfair labour practices when she suspended director-general Sam Vukela.
The bargaining council ordered De Lille to lift Vukela’s suspension with immediate effect.
It also ordered the minister to allow Vukela to return to work on Wednesday.
De Lille had suspended Vukela after a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) implicated him in allegations of fraudulent contract management and irregular payments in the planning of state funerals for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Zola Skweyiya and Billy Modise.
Vukela believes the disciplinary enquiry, which is presently pending, is “… unauthorised and cannot proceed”.
Ramaphosa removes De Lille’s powers to discipline suspended public works DG Sam Vukela
The tit-for-tat battle between Vukela and De Lille resulted in the pair making sweeping allegations against one another.
Vukela claimed De Lille had given him unlawful instructions – and that his refusal to execute the instructions had caused the friction.
The arbitrator, Katlholo Wabile, said: “The applicant (Vukela) has been on suspension since 29 July 2020. This is a period of about a year and some eight months. Discounting the prescribed period of suspension, notwithstanding the applicant’s willingness to ‘stomach’ it, the suspension has, at the time of writing this award, endured for around 550 days. I find that it has been a very long suspension.
“By what authority has the suspension exceeded 60 days to such a staggering extent?”
Wabile added that De Lille “seemed to have been convinced, probably after applying her mind, that the seriousness of the allegations alone, in the absence of other reasons, was a valid reason to suspend Vukela.”
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