Cape Town - Parliament's inquiry into suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s fitness to hold office was the scene of a battle of wills yesterday between the committee’s 13th witness, Ponatshego Mogaladi, and Mkhwebane’s lawyer, Dali Mpofu.
Recently reinstated PPSA investigations executive manager Mogaladi returned to the hearings on Thursday after her virtual testimony on Wednesday was cut short by a technical glitch.
Mogaladi, an attorney, would not yield to Mpofu’s requests for simple “yes or no” answers to his questions. When Mpofu complained about her taking 15 minutes to reply to a question, Mogaladi insisted that it was important for her to provide context.
In her testimony on Wednesday, Mogaladi said she was disciplined for missing a deadline and while she was never given a chance to argue her side of the story and served her sanction, she believed that the manner in which she and two others were treated amounted to victimisation.
At the disciplinary hearing, Mogaladi faced six main charges and was found guilty on four.
The disciplinary hearing chairperson recommended that she be suspended without pay for three months coupled with a final written warning.
Mkhwebane disagreed with this and Mogaladi had to motivate why she should not be dismissed instead.
Returning to this issue on Thursday, Mpofu asked her to answer yes or no to the question whether it was fair to say that her position with regard to being found guilty was that she accepted the guilty finding but contested the sanction.
Mogaladi said this assumption was incorrect and that it was important to clarify that she did not accept the sanction, but chose not to challenge the finding. She then launched into her explanation and clarification of her affidavit.
When Mpofu challenged her, she said she understood where he was coming from, but felt it was important to fully explain so that there were no wrong conclusions drawn from the answer.
Mogaladi joined the PPSA in December 2000 and was appointed chief investigator in 2004. In September 2012 she was appointed executive manager and after a merger of divisions at the PPSA she became the executive manager of the Administrative Justice and Service Delivery branch.