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TRANSFERRED WORKS MINISTRY OFFICIALS THROW IN THE TOWEL

11/07/2014 04:06:00 BY MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE

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MBABANE – The two senior officers at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport have withdrawn their application where they were challenging their transfers.

The senior officers who wanted their transfers stopped are Dumsani Mavuso who is a Senior Quantity Surveyor and Albert Dlamini.
Their lawyer Machawe Sithole from Dunseith Attorneys, yesterday filed a notice of withdrawal at the Industrial Court.

The application, which was being opposed by government through the attorney general, was expected to continue yesterday.
They were transferred together with Trevor Tshabalala who was the Chief Road Engineer in the Ministry of Works. Tshabalala, who has since been transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, did not challenge his transfer.

Their transfers came after they were questioned about a multi-million tender for the construction of the Sicunusa-Nhlangano Public Road
Mavuso has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture (Land Use) as Senior Contracts Engineer, while Dlamini was transferred to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade to hold the position of Township Engineer.

The transfers, according to letters written by Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Peter Mamba, were with immediate effect.
The senior officials were on June 22, 2014 called by the Principal Secretary (PS) Cyril Kunene into his office where he asked them to explain circumstances leading to the awarding of the tender for the construction of the road.

In his founding affidavit Mavuso stated that on or around June 22 he was called by PS Kunene into his office. “In his office, my senior colleagues, Mkhululi Mamba and Trevor Tshabalala were present and they were all called by the principal secretary,” reads the affidavit, in part.
He said the PS advised them that the purpose of the meeting was for them to explain how the award of the tender of the construction of Sicunusa- Nhlangano Road was done.

Mavuso further stated that the principal secretary then advised them that since all the concerned people were not present in the meeting they should again report to his office on June 23, 2014. “On June 23, 2014, again I proceeded to his office wherein Mkhululi Mamba and Trevor Tshabalala were present. The under secretary in our ministry was also present and was tape-recording the conversation of the whole duration of the meeting.

The principal secretary again advised us that the purpose of the meeting was for us all to tell him how the tender of the construction of the road was awarded,” Mavuso stated.
He said he was a bit surprised because the PS ought to have known as they reported everything to him and he was fully aware of what transpired and the role he also played.

The PS, Kunene, in the ministry said the transfers have got nothing to do with the award of the tender for the construction of the said road. Kunene stated that the discussion on the award of the tender was for the sole purpose of ascertaining if there were any outstanding issues regarding the tender, so that they could be addressed before the two senior officials were transferred.

“May I also bring to the attention of this court that in line with the government’s commitment to achieve the National Vision 2022 there arose a need to re-organise the workplace which called for the redeployment of the applicants ( Mavuso and Dlamini),” Kunene said.