DCEC defies court order
Tefo Pheage | Tuesday February 16, 2016 15:50
Monyatsi was dismissed in 2013 on accusations of “unbecoming conduct, neglect of duty, failure to obey lawful instructions, unauthorised absence from work, late coming, use of physical force on staff, plagiarising speeches, failure to carry out official assignments, abuse of government motor vehicles as well as verbal assaults on staff.”
The court in 2015, however, ruled in Monyatsi’s favour that the DCEC Director Rose Seretse and then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Eric Molale never afforded her a fair hearing. The duo was ordered to reinstate Monyatsi and pay her all the money she lost as a result.
Despite that, the DCEC last month advertised Monyatsi’s position while she was preparing to go back to work as per the court order. According to the advertisement the job attracts a salary of (P370,692-385,680 per annum).
The DCEC says that they have advertised the job because Monyatsi’s lawyers have said that she is no longer interested in the job, something which her lawyers are refuting. In a letter written to the DCEC, her lawyer Leonard Mosepele says “it has come to our attention that the DCEC has advertised a post of a Senior Assistant Director (Public Education) and it is our great concern that the said advertised post is the same post that was previously held by our client before you terminated her employment from public service.”
The letter further says, 'on the 19th May 2015, Justice Bengbame Sechele made an order setting aside your decision to terminate our client’s employment from the public service and ordered that your client reinstate our client to her previous position of Senior Assistant Director.
“The said court order ought to be complied with. Therefore our client still awaits a letter of reinstatement and an invitation from your client to commence her duties as the senior assistant director,” reads the letter to DCEC.
The DCEC has not yet responded to the letter as they are still weighing whether to proceed with the appointment.
Mmegi has been informed that Monyatsi will apply for contempt of court over the matter.
Molale and Seretse have also attributed all Monyatsi’s actions to her infirmity of her mind, further subjecting her to a controversial medical examination which Justice Sechele says was unlawful and an intrusion into Monyatsi’s privacy.
In his affidavit, Molale, said the decision to terminate Monyatsi’s employment was a follow up to a letter addressed to him by the DCEC Director General bringing his attention to her assistant’s conduct, saying her actions were detrimental to the work of the DCEC and the division she was heading.
Molale later summoned the Ministry of Health to examine Monyatsi who argued that all these processes infringed on the principle of natural justice as she was never given an opportunity to comment or respond to the allegations levelled against her despite their seriousness.
The court had ruled that medical examinations of whatever nature are intrusive and impose on all those that are entrusted with the decision to commission them a duty to act fairly.