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Johannesburg - Former communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala said on Friday President Jacob Zuma has about 26 days to intervene in her "invalid, unlawful and unfair" dismissal.
Communications Minister General Siphiwe Nyanda fired her a week before, claiming an irretrievable breakdown in their relationship.
The case that Mohlala submitted to the labour court in Johannesburg on Friday – in which she demanded reinstatement in her position as DG – has been postponed to August 26.
Outside the court she declared herself satisfied with the new date because President Zuma had sent a letter requesting intervention in the case and that it be resolved.
The president still had the power to take the case into his own hands, she said.
According to the application, Zuma alone had the right to terminate her service. The president is also one of the respondents in her application.
Mohlala said that in his letter Zuma requested Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi to handle the case.
Mohlala said she would contact Baloyi.
She considered that postponement of the case also would give Nyanda ample opportunity to respond to her application, and said she was interested in hearing his response.
In particular, she wanted to see how Nyanda would react to a letter submitted together with her application which indicated that he had ordered her to suspend all tenders issued or still to be issued until they had been discussed with and approved by him.
Procurement was not a matter over which the minister had jurisdiction, she pointed out.
He was the political head of the department, she said in her sworn statement, and he had no legal role in procurement processes. That was an executive role and the responsibility of the DG.
It appears that an SMS sent to her the previous evening just after midnight had been the reason for the conflict between herself and Nyanda.
'Never lie'
She was not lying, she said. She would never lie. She had the facts, the times and the statements, and hoped for intervention. She was certain the president regarded the matter in a very serious light.
After the court proceedings on Friday Tiyani Rikhotso, Nyanda's spokesperson, said there were currently many allegations levelled against the minister, but up to the present there had been no proof of any wrongdoing.
In his view the repetitive allegations that Nyanda was abusing his position to enrich himself were unjustified.
The department considered that the minister was acting within his rights in taking the decision he had, Rikhotso insisted.
He considered the issue of the relationship between Mohlala and Nyanda significant to this case.
He said that it was in the public interest that they went their separate ways. There had to be a good working relationship for the department to function well.
It would seem that Mohlala's proposal for rectification includes settlement, reappointment in her old position or redeployment to a different position at an equivalent level.
According to Rikhotso the offer of a settlement agreement, in terms of which she would receive R1.6m, a year's salary, still stood. But she had apparently rejected it.
- Sake24.com
Communications Minister General Siphiwe Nyanda fired her a week before, claiming an irretrievable breakdown in their relationship.
The case that Mohlala submitted to the labour court in Johannesburg on Friday – in which she demanded reinstatement in her position as DG – has been postponed to August 26.
Outside the court she declared herself satisfied with the new date because President Zuma had sent a letter requesting intervention in the case and that it be resolved.
The president still had the power to take the case into his own hands, she said.
According to the application, Zuma alone had the right to terminate her service. The president is also one of the respondents in her application.
Mohlala said that in his letter Zuma requested Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi to handle the case.
Mohlala said she would contact Baloyi.
She considered that postponement of the case also would give Nyanda ample opportunity to respond to her application, and said she was interested in hearing his response.
In particular, she wanted to see how Nyanda would react to a letter submitted together with her application which indicated that he had ordered her to suspend all tenders issued or still to be issued until they had been discussed with and approved by him.
Procurement was not a matter over which the minister had jurisdiction, she pointed out.
He was the political head of the department, she said in her sworn statement, and he had no legal role in procurement processes. That was an executive role and the responsibility of the DG.
It appears that an SMS sent to her the previous evening just after midnight had been the reason for the conflict between herself and Nyanda.
'Never lie'
She was not lying, she said. She would never lie. She had the facts, the times and the statements, and hoped for intervention. She was certain the president regarded the matter in a very serious light.
After the court proceedings on Friday Tiyani Rikhotso, Nyanda's spokesperson, said there were currently many allegations levelled against the minister, but up to the present there had been no proof of any wrongdoing.
In his view the repetitive allegations that Nyanda was abusing his position to enrich himself were unjustified.
The department considered that the minister was acting within his rights in taking the decision he had, Rikhotso insisted.
He considered the issue of the relationship between Mohlala and Nyanda significant to this case.
He said that it was in the public interest that they went their separate ways. There had to be a good working relationship for the department to function well.
It would seem that Mohlala's proposal for rectification includes settlement, reappointment in her old position or redeployment to a different position at an equivalent level.
According to Rikhotso the offer of a settlement agreement, in terms of which she would receive R1.6m, a year's salary, still stood. But she had apparently rejected it.
- Sake24.com
