Gauteng Health chief director of legal services advocate Mpelegeng Lebeloane has been paid R4.7m since June 2019, despite her having not worked a day, after a Public Service Commission (PSC) report on her appointment found irregularities in her transfer from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The PSC had recommended the health department apply to the Labour Court “without delay” to set aside Lebeloane’s transfer to the department and although this was done on 18 November 2020, Lebeloane opposed it. The PSC had investigated Lebeloane after complaints were lodged about her apparently high-handed management style.
The case against her is expected to be heard in the Labour Court only in 2023, reports News24.
In written replies to the Gauteng legislature, Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi confirmed Lebeloane has been paid R4 681 700 since 1 July 2019 until now. Carel van der Heerden is currently acting in the position.
Mokgethi said the department went to court again in July and the registrar said “the matters that are being allocated now are for the year 2023”.
DA health spokesperson Jack Bloom said this was “an enormous sum of money to pay for a botched appointment”. “It could have paid for 10 senior nurses for a year at our understaffed hospitals.”
Lebeloane was former health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa’s personal assistant when she was fired in January 2006 for misusing state property but was later absolved on appeal. When Ramokgopa returned as health MEC in February 2017, she recruited Lebeloane back into the department as chief of staff. She was appointed as a chief director for legal services in March 2018.
News24 article – Gauteng health legal head paid R4.7m while at home (Open access)
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