Kebonang calls for personal liability review
Mpho Mokwape | Monday September 15, 2025 13:02
He made the suggestive remarks on Tuesday when ruling that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development unlawfully dismissed one of its employees, ordering his immediate reinstatement along with full back pay and benefits.
Justice Kebonang ordered that the said civil servant, Petrus Katjahangue, be reinstated immediately to his job and that the government pay all his lost wages and benefits.
“On the facts of this case, I believe that a punitive cost order is warranted. The deliberate misrepresentation of the disciplinary committee findings by the decision maker in order to justify the applicant's dismissal was such an act of bad faith and abuse of authority that it needs to be called out,” he said.
“Time has perhaps come for government to consider surcharging or recovering litigation costs from its officers, who have as in this case, flagrantly abused their authority and power.”
Justice Kebonang further reviewed and set aside the decision to dismiss the employee, ordering that he immediately be reinstated to his position and paid all his benefits from the time he was dismissed.
Katjahangue worked as a driver for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. He was on January 18, 2023, dismissed him from his job by the Ministry after it was said had failed to account for missing government fuel.
Before his dismissal, the driver had been formally charged on August 10, 2022 with theft, misuse of government fuel, and dishonesty though he was never found guilty by the disciplinary committee.
Despite the not guilty finding, the Ministry reportedly went ahead and fired him.
In the dismissal letter, government claimed that while the committee had recommended that he be absolved, the minutes showed he failed to account for the missing fuel.
This interpretation of the committee’s findings was rejected by the court.
Kebonang found that the Ministry had misrepresented the outcome of the disciplinary process stating that no recommendation had been made by the committee about whether to absolve or dismiss the driver.
The judge explained that instead, the committee had made a firm decision that the employee was not guilty of the charges.
“The dismissal decision was irrational, unreasonable, and not based on any valid reason. A person cannot be dismissed for charges they have been cleared of, and that making up a reason to justify the dismissal was a serious abuse of power,” Kebonang stated.
The judge also noted that the Ministry acted outside the bounds of acceptable decision-making and that the decision did not fall within the range of lawful or fair outcomes and lacked any connection to the evidence on record.
He explained the legal standards that apply when reviewing decisions made by public officials including the test of reasonableness, which tests whether a decision is so unreasonable that no sensible person could have made it under the circumstances, finding that the standard had not been met in the present case.
Kebonang also pointed out that there was no evidence before the Ministry that supported the dismissal. He added that the decision to ignore the not guilty verdict and instead rely on a false interpretation of the hearing outcome showed bad faith.
The judge said the Ministry’s attempt to rewrite the committee’s findings to fit a decision that had already been made was unlawful and stated that reinstatement was the natural remedy when someone is dismissed without justification.
“It restores the employee to the same position they were in before being dismissed. The Court said there was no evidence that the relationship between the Applicant and the Ministry had broken down to a point where reinstatement was not possible,” he said.
The facts of the case are that before Katjahangue’s dismissal, a Disciplinary Committee was set up to hear the matter.
The committee was made up of the Tribal Administrator for the North-East Tribal Administration as the Chairperson, and the Clerk Assistant of the Qangwa Customary Court appeared on behalf of the government as the complainant.
According to court, the disciplinary hearing began on September 13, 2022 and ended on September 15, 2022 and during the hearing, both sides presented their evidence and called witnesses.
After considering all the evidence, the Committee concluded that the charges were not proven therefore finding the driver not guilty.
“In the final report, the committee said the evidence did not prove that the applicant had taken or misused the missing twenty liters of diesel. It also stated that the case revealed poor fuel controls and a lack of supervision within the Ministry, which may have caused the confusion.
“The committee gave the applicant the benefit of the doubt and made no finding of wrongdoing on his part,” reads the part of the judgment.
It is stated that the committee also made several recommendations to the Ministry and those included checking the vehicle for a possible defect in the fuel system, tightening fuel usage controls, and ensuring that future complainants in disciplinary cases are properly prepared since the burden of proof lies with them.
However, the committee did not suggest any disciplinary action against the driver or recommend his dismissal.