Court matter between water dept, ex-CFO drags on

Almost a decade after the department of water axed its then chief financial officer (CFO) for financial misconduct, the two are still locked in a legal battle, with the latter claiming unfair dismissal.

Onesmus Ayaya was suspended from his departmental position in 2010 in the wake of an auditor-general’s report on more than R1 billion in irregular expenditure that implicated him in irregular procurement practices.

The following year, then newly appointed minister of water Edna Molewa announced that Ayaya had had a disciplinary hearing and had been dismissed.

Yesterday, the Johannesburg Labour Court heard that more than three years after he was given his marching orders, Ayaya had approached the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council, claiming unfair dismissal.

The department has gone to court to have the bargaining council’s ruling in favour of Ayaya in 2014 in their absence rescinded.

The department claimed it was not aware the matter had been set down before the bargaining council and that there was “miscommunication” between itself and the assistant state attorney. But its case is that the bargaining council should never have agreed to hear Ayaya in the first place.

Chief director of legal services in the department Puseletso Loselo said in court papers that on his dismissal, Ayaya had been informed he had 30 days to refer a dispute to the bargaining council and labelled his explanation for the delay – that he was away on business trips – “absurd”.

The bargaining council had accepted his explanation.

“These were his own personal trips that had nothing to do with the department and which cannot be excused,” said Loselo. “He placed his personal interests ahead of the rules of litigation and cannot now seek to use self-serving concerns as an excuse for an inordinate delay.

“He decided to follow political means to resolve the dispute. It is only when he realised that his political connections were not going to assist him that he came to the [bargaining council].”

Three months after the bargaining council handed down its default ruling, the department approached it directly asking for a rescission. The request was refused because the department had missed the 14 days post-ruling deadline to launch the application.

“Another significant point to be made in regard to Mr Ayaya’s inordinate delay is the fact that [the bargaining council] found that he was entitled to be granted condonation for a delay of more than three years, but refused to grant the department condonation of a delay of 90 days,” said Loselo.

The department wants the court to review and set aside the bargaining council’s refusal of its request for a rescission application.

Loselo said it was an important issue: “It is an issue which, when decided, will bring all the proceedings between the parties to an end or will dispose of all ancillary applications and make way for the referral of the unfair dismissal dispute.”

The matter proceeded unopposed, with representatives for Ayaya not present in court.

Yesterday afternoon, however, Ayaya’s lawyer, Pule Pule, said his client had not been served and they would take it up with the court.

Judgment was reserved yesterday.

– news@citizen.co.za

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