Agric ministry guilty of unfair, unlawful promotions
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday February 15, 2022 09:32
The ministry, which stood accused of handpicking colleagues without following the normal and due process from its employees, has been told that it violated the legislative laws governing such promotions.
Justice Isaac Lesetedi of the Court of Appeal recently found out that the aggrieved employees were right to accuse the ministry and its permanent secretary of alleged nepotism and corruption during promotions.
The judge explained that the High Court was right in concluding that the process employed to promote some employees and not having others in a fair assessment process violated the due procedure.
“The practice that has been long used is found on the legislative and regulatory injunction and is binding,” he said.
He said any appointment or promotion demonstrated not to have been made under the law and on which the rights or legitimate expectations of other employees are found to have been violated was liable to be set aside on the ground of illegality and or procedural impropriety.
Lesetedi pointed out that the ministry did not even present a consistent explanation for the non-recommendation of the aggrieved six employees to participate in the competency interviews of the posts so the High Court was justified in its findings on the handpicking of the promoted employees without carrying out a competitive process considering most were eminently qualified to be included in the process.
“The consistent explanations between the PS and the director paint a picture of tailored versions to explain away the handpicking of the promoted employees,” he said.
The judge told the ministry that language and framework were clear and every supervising and regulatory authority was bound to give effect to that, noting that appointing and supervising officers in the public service sector are custodians of the public interest. Therefore, they are obligated to treat all those below them fairly in decision-making and career advancement processes.
Justice Lesetedi emphasised that the employees were not seeking to be promoted, that all they sought was that they should be subjected to fair treatment of being considered in the promotion process and that they did not come to court seeking an order for promotion.
Lesetedi’s judgment comes after the ministry and its PS were taken to court by six employees after accusing them of promoting some employees without proper regard to their qualifications.
They lost at the High Court last year when they were found to have practised illegality on promotions and tried to appeal with no success.
The six employees were aggrieved by the fact that they were not allowed to compete for the vacancies despite qualifying and launched a court case as they likened the ministry’s decision to that of nepotism and corruption.
In its defence, the ministry said it deviated from the norm used for promotions as there was a big project within the ministry that needed expertise.