Zondo asked to assist in protracted CCMA matter of failed FS housing scapegoats

One of the employees who took the fall for the “irregular” R1 billion Free State housing project has pleaded with Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo to assist with finalising their disciplinary hearing, which has taken seven years to come before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Mphikeleli Kaizer Maxatshwa, the former chief director at a local government branch of the department of local government and housing in the Free State Province, pleaded with the chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture and the commission, to provide assistance as “this matter has taken its toll, I’m not saying on me alone”.

It has been seven years since Maxatshwa says he and five of his colleagues were “selectively charged unfairly”. He told the commission that during their journey to get justice “we lost one of our colleagues” who succumbed to depression and the pressures stemming from “this exercise of us getting purged by those who have powers to do so”.

Maxatshwa told Zondo that the unfair treatment against them continues to this day, as there has been a failure to finalise the matter as speedily as possible.

Maxatshwa further said with the disciplinary matter still hanging over his head, he has not been able to secure employment.

Some of the assistance Maxatshwa pleaded for was that a preliminary report which was used to charge them, but which he said he and his colleagues had no clue about, be availed to them.

Maxatshwa told Zondo that he and his colleagues wish to know “why were we charged”, adding that they were available to answer any questions the head of the Free State department of human settlements, Nthimotse Mokhesi, may have had on the housing project.

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Maxatshwa told Zondo that the suspension letter served on them by Mokhesi had “gagged” them, instructing them that they could not talk to anyone unless he, Mokhesi, allowed them to do so.

He further took issue with the fact that Mokhesi had never attended any of their disciplinary hearings, but rather sent junior officials who were clueless about the matters at hand.

Maxatshwa said they have asked to “amicably settle this particular matter”.

He told Zondo that the CCMA process has dug into their pockets as they now owe lawyers money.

One of the delays to the CCMA process which Maxatshwa pointed out was that there have been three or four instances where commissioners would be daunted by the vast evidence they would have to deal with, and asked to be recused.

Zondo said since Maxatshwa and his colleagues are represented by lawyers at the CCMA, he is not sure there is much that the commission can do.

The head of the commission’s legal team, Advocate Paul Pretorius said “it may be worth investigating” whether there was a link between Free State officials and the delays in Maxatshwa and his colleagues’ CCMA matter.

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