Former prosecutor sues DPP

Mpho Mokwape | Friday October 9, 2015 17:03

 

Motseta, the former Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) employee filed an urgent application before Lobatse High Court last month.

His notice of motion filed on August 13, 2015, states that he was dismissed from work without any reason after filing a report of labour misconduct by employees of the DPP.

“I filed a report with the Attorney General as the respondent in this matter while employed at the DPP concerning a labour misconduct by employees, but was dismissed from work instead,” he said.

According to his founding affidavit, he was the state prosecutor with the DPP between 2009 and 2012 before being fired from work after reporting that his house and office keys had been stolen at work. He feared that the missing keys might lead to theft of files. He explained that on March 22, 2012 he filed the report of misconduct in which he included the theft of property from his place.

“The defendant was silent on the report for four months, so since I was not sure who were the perpetrators, whether they were accused persons I had prosecuted before or personnel at the office and also the police failing to cooperate with me, I fled to Lesotho out of fear,” he said.

Motseta said he fled to a foreign country because he felt that he would feel comfortable where residents would help without fear of reprisal.

He further said following his absence from work, he was sent a letter requesting that he show cause as to why he should not be dismissed from employment.

“During that time I enquired about my report and nothing was communicated to me until I was given a dismissal letter though I had not received a hearing prior to my dismissal,” he said.

Motseta seeks reinstatement from the former employer and among others payment of P704,500 and  further severance benefits calculated on the basis of the internship contract and his permanent and pensionable contract.

However, in their replying affidavit, the state has maintained that Motseta was given time to show cause why he should not be dismissed from work, but failed to do so.

According to the state affidavit, the DPP says Motseta premised his report on the fact that his keys went missing.

“The keys were recovered the very same day in another office which he admitted that he has been to, so the matter was finalised, but instead he chose to abscond from work for days without any valuable reason, this only constituted a breach of contract,” states the documents.