Mashazi appointed an unqualified metro police deputy, Public Protector says

Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka found on Thursday that former Ekurhuleni city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi committed improper conduct when she appointed a deputy metro police chief who did not meet the job’s qualification rule.

The finding was released with a batch of investigation reports. It concerns Ndumiso Aschendorf Gcwabe, appointed deputy chief of Metro Police for Security and Loss Control. The advertised package was between R1.6 million and R1.9 million a year, TimesLIVE reported.

“We find that Mr Gcwabe did not qualify for the position of Deputy Chief of Metro Police. In the circumstances, we further find that the conduct of the former City Manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, as Accounting Officer of CoE at the time of appointment of Mr Gcwabe constitutes improper conduct,” Gcaleka said.

The complaint was lodged on 23 August 2023 by Vukile Mlungwana for the Municipal Employees and Civil Servants Union. The post required a relevant bachelor’s degree or an equivalent NQF level 7 qualification, and a metro police qualification from an institution accredited by the Road Traffic Management Corporation and the South African Police Service. That qualification had to include a traffic officer diploma and a law enforcement skills certificate.

Gcwabe’s highest post-matric qualification on his CV was a National Diploma in Policing, graded at NQF level 6, the investigation found. His certificate in the crime-prevention management programme was a six-month short course. Gcaleka said short courses sit outside formal undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and are not a registered qualification under the National Qualifications Framework Act, or under the advertisement.

The city did check his papers before the appointment, using a private verifier. Gcaleka said that check was not enough. It confirmed that the documents were genuine. It did not ask the South African Qualifications Authority to confirm the NQF level. “Accordingly, this administrative deficiency amounts to an infringement of the constitution, the Municipal Systems Act and other recruitment regulations,” she said. She found the appointment irregular and recommended that it be taken on judicial review.

No corrective action will be taken against Mashazi. She has left the state’s employ. Public Protector chief operations officer Advocate Nelisiwe Nkabinde said the office investigates organs of state and their functionaries, and that remedial action is not implementable once a person has left. Gcaleka said the finding should still count if Mashazi, or anyone in the same position, is considered for another public post.

“Once a person has left the employment of the state, then such remedial action may not necessarily be implementable,” Gcaleka said. “But we highlight this in the sense that we do see people sometimes being appointed in some areas of government, and that consideration of such conduct, and pronouncements that have been made by the public protector as part of a remedial action, should be taken into account.”

Her office is building a live database with the Department of Public Service and Administration and local-government structures of people named in Public Protector reports, so a move from one state body to another is on the record.

Sunday World, reporting the same briefing, said the office also found wrongdoing in the appointment of Xolani Nciza as divisional head of employee relations. Nciza is the brother of TK Nciza, a former ANC Gauteng provincial secretary. The post required a law degree. Gcaleka said a pre-appointment check of his uncertified papers found only matric and an information technology management certificate, not the B-Iuris degree from Vista University and the advanced labour law qualification from Unisa listed on his CV.

Gcaleka used the Ekurhuleni case to describe a wider pattern. In Musina, an integrated development plan officer was appointed after a verification report found no employment record, and the evidence showed she had misrepresented her work history. In a third municipality, a manager was hired on a one-year advanced diploma for a post that required a three-year qualification. Gcaleka has asked the minister of higher education and training to review the qualifications framework and publish uniform guidelines, including for private-university degrees that departments have treated as equivalent.

The finding is not a criminal conviction. Mashazi faces separate charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice with other Ekurhuleni officials, The Citizen reported, and she has given evidence at the Madlanga Commission on her time as city manager. Those matters were not part of Thursday’s report.