Durban – Siza Sibande, the head of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Dard), has come out guns blazing to deny allegations of impropriety levelled against him.
The allegations are contained in an anonymous letter which was circulated at the department’s head office in Cedara, outside Pietermaritzburg, late last week.
The letter was also sent to IOL and circulated on social media. It contains several allegations against Sibande and another senior official in the department.
Confronted by IOL about the allegations, Sibande roped in his lawyers, Mpumelelo, Hadebe INC, to respond on his behalf. The law firm said Sibande was in the process of tracking down the person behind the letter.
It stressed that Sibande denied all the allegations levelled against him.
Sibande is accused by employees and unions of failing to act against a senior official who is alleged to have abused their power by arbitrarily suspending managers.
“These allegations are unfounded and are meant to vilify our client with intend (sic) to injure his reputation. The suspension of the referred individuals is not unlawful and illegal as suggested.
“The process is dealt with by the Labour Relations office. To avoid interference with the investigations and undermining the integrity of the process, our client will not divulge the merits of the matter.
“There are internal processes that are to be followed should there be a grievance/complaint against the employee of the department.
“The department has in the last 15 months concluded recruitment of more than 100 posts where about not even a single dispute has been received or lodged against the department,” Sibande’s lawyers responded to IOL.
Sibande’s lawyers said the aim of the letter was to impugn his reputation as a seasoned civil servant.
“Our client is a respected professional in the community. He has spent years serving the community in the public sector and building a positive reputation. Amongst other latest achievements, for the first time in the last 28 years, the department has obtained a clean audit under his leadership.
“Also, Okhahlamba Municipality had a clean audit during his tenure as a municipal manager. Clearly, this is a smear campaign to damage our client's reputation which he built over years.”
The lawyers said the Public Servants Association (PSA) had raised the allegations and Sibande had since requested a meeting with the union.
The PSA’s KwaZulu-Natal manager, Charles Ngubane, told IOL that the union received the allegations from its members who work for the department and they wanted them to be probed.
“We have a meeting with the department tomorrow (Friday). These are allegations until they have been proven … we want the department to probe them, though,” Ngubane said.
Current Affairs