Pretoria - Suspended Commission for Gender Equality senior official Mbuyiselo Botha is expected to return to work after the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, overturned his suspension.
The court declared the suspension letter and the suspension of Botha unlawful, invalid and unconstitutional.
The power to suspend a commissioner only lies in the hands of the president, and only once impeachment proceedings have been instituted by the National Assembly, Judge Jabulani Dlamini said.
Botha was suspended in August 2021 by the commission, for allegedly insulting fellow commissioners.
Botha is alleged to have launched a verbal attack on Commission for Gender Equality chairperson Tamara Mathebula and another commissioner, Nomasonto Mazibuko. The remarks were allegedly recorded in a clip in which Botha was apparently heard calling Mazibuko an albino and saying that Mathebula lacked a backbone.
He subsequently turned to the court to have his suspension reviewed and set aside. The court found that the commission had unlawfully usurped the powers of the president in suspending him.
Botha told the court that an investigation was conducted into the allegations that he had made certain remarks in breach of the commission’s Code of Conduct attached to the commissioner’s handbook.
He subsequently received a letter from Commission for Gender Equality chairperson Tamara Mathebula, advising him that he was suspended as a commissioner with immediate effect, pending the outcome of disciplinary action.
Botha said he was not issued with a final warning, he was not reprimanded to behave accordingly and, to his knowledge, the Speaker of the National Assembly had not been requested to commence proceedings to remove him.
He also objected to the fact that he was suspended without being given the opportunity to make representations.
Botha said he turned to court after his requests for his suspension to be lifted fell on deaf ears.
The commission, in turn, explained that an incident occurred during its plenary meeting in July 2021, when Botha was allegedly heard making disparaging remarks against some of the commission’s members.
The commission said these alleged derogatory remarks were in breach of Botha’s terms and conditions of office and against the commission’s code which forms part of the commissioner’s handbook.
It was argued on behalf of the commission that its code of conduct was lawful and valid and that the code empowered it to suspend Botha.
The commission said suspension was the only option to regulate its internal affairs and to address misconduct by its commissioners between the period of the commission of gross misconduct and the protracted time-lag between the initiation of the investigation into the conduct.
But the court made it clear that the power to suspend a commissioner lay in the hands of the president, and only once impeachment proceedings had been instituted by the National Assembly.
The judge found that the commission had unlawfully usurped the powers of the president to suspend the commissioner.
Pretoria News