Telecommunications Minister Siyabonga Cwele
Photo by: Reuters
Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Dr Siyabonga Cwele has served charges on his department’s Director-General (DG) Rosey Sekese.
This comes after Cwele put Sekese on precautionary suspension in August for two months amid a probe being launched into leadership problems at the department.
Business technology publication ITWeb reported in March this year that insiders said Sekese has allegedly been on a “witch hunt” to purge staff members who oppose her.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Siya Qoza did not, on Wednesday, want to comment on what Sekese has been charged with until the process is completed.
"Sekese was served with charges and the disciplinary process started on Tuesday, November 3,” read a statement from the department.
“The Department will advise the public once these processes have been concluded by the chairperson of the inquiry,” said the department
Qoza, though, did say that the precautionary suspension and current process of charges launched against Sekese are not affecting work at the department.
“We’ve had an interim DG in the period that Rosy was suspended,” Qoza told Fin24.
The department in August announced at the time that it had appointed Tinyiko Ngobeni as the acting DG.
Meanwhile, the investigation against Sekese by the department was also launched after opposition political party the Democratic Alliance (DA) had raised concerns that a leadership exodus at the ministry could impact on the likes of a government broadband roll-out project.
In July, Deputy Director-General (DDG) Sam Vilakazi resigned after Sekese fired two other DDGs Themba Phiri and Gift Buthelezi.