Senior civil servant dismissed for misconduct, dishonesty

A senior Limpopo government employee who attempted to interfere with recruitment  processes and took time off work for two weeks has been dismissed.

Department of health assistant director for supply chain management Justice Nefumbada was found guilty of gross misconduct, fraud and gross dishonesty after an internal disciplinary hearing. Though he was dismissed two weeks ago, Nepfumbada told Sowetan last week he was not aware of the hearing outcome.

“As far I know the decision has not been made. I’m not aware that I have been dismissed,” he said.

According to the disciplinary report  that Sowetan has seen, Nepfumbada was found guilty  after interfering with the recruitment process on September 8 2022,  when he allegedly “ordered  Rachal Mohlaka (chairperson of the panel) to pull out one of the successful candidates and replace him/her with Mr Mohale  which he knew or ought to have known was unlawful,” reads the charge sheet. 

According to disciplinary hearing records, Mohlaka testified that she received a WhatsApp call from Nepfumbada, who was not part of the relevant interview panel, telling her that he’d heard that Mohale  had not succeeded at the interviews.

“He (Nepfumbada) went on instructing that she must go and remove the successful candidate and instead, replace the candidate with Mr Mohale ... She said it is not proper to replace a successful candidate, that such action would  constitute corruption,” reads the document.

Mohlaka said the following day Nepfumbada texted her to apologise  for his call about Mohale. 

“She (Mohlaka) said she laid the complaint because she felt insulted, disrespected, harassed and all because she is a woman. She said she does not know how Mr Nepfumbada knew about the outcomes of the interview,” says the report.

Nepfumbada said he knew Mohale as a member of a union and that he did not have a special  relationship with him. He also denied allegations of interference. 

The document further says, addressing Nepfumbada: “You are charged with misconduct, of gross dishonesty, in that on or about October 20, 2022 you wrote a letter to the CFO, saying that you were on duty  from July 4 2022 to July 15 2022 while you knew that you were not on duty.” 

It is alleged that he falsified the attendance register purporting that he was on duty between July 4 and 11 2022. 

Department spokesperson Neil Shikwambana confirmed Nepfumbada’s dismissal.

“Yes, we can confirm that indeed Mr Justice Nepfumbada has been dismissed from the employ of the department after undergoing a disciplinary process that found him guilty of fraud, gross dishonesty and improper conduct. But we don’t want to go deep into the details of the issues right now,” said Shikwambana.