The family welcomes Mr. Hasane’s decision to formally report the matter to the Public Protector and the Public Service Commission as a measure to prevent the said people from any threats they may further pose.
This follows internal departmental grievance processes initiated by Mr. Hasane, which confirmed allegations that Mr. Msibi authored and circulated a fraudulent letter under the guise of an anonymous source calling for Mr. Hasane’s dismissal from the public service are substantiated.
The letter, which Mr. Msibi sent to himself, the Minister of Transport, the Director-General, and the labour union, was allegedly composed using a Department of Transport Microsoft account and sent to the said people from a Pretoria Sunnyside Internet Café.
The letter falsely accused Mr. Hasane and other colleagues of misconduct and recommended their immediate dismissal.
Following this, Mr. Msibi approached the Human Resources unit with a printed copy of the same letter, pretending its foreign to him, seeking to initiate disciplinary action against Mr. Hasane, a Director, and one of his colleagues, a Deputy Director.
The subsequent grievance process, which included forensic metadata analysis of the letter, confirmed that allegations that Mr. Msibi was the original author were substantiated by Mr. Hasane. The document was later edited by Mr. Zakhele Nkwanyana – Mr. Msibi’s homeboy and close friend before it was circulated.
Mr. Hasane raised the alarm after recognizing Mr. Msibi’s handwriting on the printed copy submitted to HR. He then formally filed a grievance against Mr. Msibi for manufacturing the anonymous letter.
In response, Ms. Gcina allegedly misused the grievance process to launch an investigation into Mr. Hasane without following due process, seemingly in an attempt to shield Mr. Msibi from accountability.
This is not surprising, given allegations that Ms. Gcina admitted – during internal engagements with department officials – that she, Mr. Msibi, and the former Chief of Staff conspired to remove Mr. Hasane and his colleague from their positions to make way for associates from the now-defunct Department of Public Enterprises.
The available evidence now substantiated with a Grievance Report points to a coordinated effort to mislead departmental leadership and manipulate disciplinary processes for a malicious purpose: to displace existing Department of Transport officials and create vacancies for their associates.
“The involvement of senior government officials who view Esethu as expendable in order to secure jobs for their friends is not only a direct threat his career, but also to his personal safety. These actions reflect a gross abuse of power by his immediate supervisor and a complete betrayal of the ethical responsibilities of the Chief Director of HR. The Public Service Act obliges public servants to report unethical conduct to the relevant authorities, and he has done the right thing by taking this matter to Chapter 9 institutions. We are concerned about the risk of retaliation, and it would be remiss of us to wait until harm is done before placing this matter on public record,” the Hasane family stated.
“Esethu holds undergraduate degrees in Public Policy, Public Administration, Media and Writing, and International Relations from the University of Cape Town, as well as a postgraduate qualification…