The Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) welcomes a ruling by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) which allows it to proceed with a disciplinary hearing against a senior employee.
The employee sought to halt disciplinary proceedings on the basis that some of the charges emanate from an alleged disclosure made under the Protected Disclosure Act of 2000, thereby disguising themselves as a whistleblower when they are not.
The employee wanted all charges, including those not related to protected disclosure, to be dropped.
The employee faces serious charges including the violation and breach of Supply Chain Management policies which led to CETA incurring irregular expenditure, the violation of contract management policies, alleged leaking of CETA confidential information and bringing the CETA and the CEO name into disrepute, misrepresentation, fraud and forgery, including that of allegedly forging the CEO’s signature as well as the violation of CETA’s code of conduct and ethics.
It must be borne in mind that the discolures in question were made in August 2019, three months after the forensic investigation report implicating the same official and others was issued to the CETA Board in May 2019.
The employee had concealed information about irregularities then afterwards claimed was whistleblowing on what could have been brought to light years earlier.
The official is at the centre of those implicated in the findings by the forensic report.
In June 2023, the employee was placed on suspension and proceeded, in the same month, to violate their suspension conditions by contacting the Ministry of Higher Education and Training, a shareholder ministry and associated entity that they were forbidden from interacting with.
In its ruling, the CCMA has found that “...the disclosures in their entirety, given the timing in which they were made, were not made sincerely, honestly and in good faith and thus cannot be regarded as protected disclosures to be protected against occupational detriment. The employee must face all charges in the disciplinary hearing and provide her defenses accordingly.”
“This ruling by CCMA confirms that there was never any whistleblower to start with. We welcome this ruling as very critical for applying consequences management against serious transgressions.” CEO Malusi Shezi said of the ruling “What we have here is not a hero or whistleblower of but rather someone who, upon being cornered to face disciplinary action for wrongdoing, sought to play victim by posing as a whistleblower and proceeded to conduct a smear campaign against the CEO and the CETA Board. Let the facts be ventilated and appropriate determination be made in due processes”.
Shezi says he hopes that this ruling will diffuse claims, which have found their way to the public domain, that the CEO targets whistleblowers through disciplinary action. “That is simply not true, and a careful reading of the ruling proves this.”
“From the time I assumed office in 2021, one of my key goals has been to eliminate corrupt practices and malfeasance and bring clean governance and administration at CETA. This ruling not only vindicates us but gives us confidence to proceed with action we believe will help clean up the rot and cancer plaguing the SETAs.”
Shezi looks forward to the conclusion of the disciplinary process to allow CETA to focus on its work on uplifting skills development imperatives in the construction and spur infrastructure rollout in the country.
