Bereng Mpaki
FORMER Prime Minister Thomas Thabane’s chef, Puleng Mokhele, has dragged the government to the Labour Court over the non-payment of her salaries since November 2018.
Ms Mokhele says she did not receive her salary since her suspension from work in November 2018. She alleges that the suspension was solely due to her strained relations with then First Lady ‘Maesaiah Thabane until May this year. She was employed by the Ministry of Public in April 2018 as a chef in the Prime Minister’s office.
Her contract was later automatically terminated when Mr Thabane was stepped down in May 2020.
In her prayers, Ms Mokhele wants the court to compel the government to retrospectively pay her salaries and all benefits accruing from 28 November 2018, the date of her suspension until 20 May 2020 when her contract expired.
She also wants the government to bear her costs for the case and any other relief measures the court may impose for her plight.
The Ministry of Public Service and the (acting) Attorney General Advocate Tšebang Putsoane are the first and second respondents in the matter.
Ms Mokhele argues that the government was supposed to pay her salary even when she was on suspension. That she has to date not been found guilty of any wrongdoing is more reason for her to be paid for the 18 months that she was on suspension until the lapsing of her contract.
She said she was suspended after being slapped with a letter to show cause why she should not be dismissed for stealing kitchen equipment.
“I worked diligently and faithfully as stipulated in my contract until the date of my suspension, which I submit, was illegal as it was without pay…,” Ms Mokhele states in her court papers.
“I was suspended without pay with immediate effect pending investigations, and investigations up to date of the expiry of my contract have not being finalised, which action legally binds them to pay me as is a blatant violation of the law to suspend an employee without pay. By way of summary, I was suspended without pay.”
She said her suspension was due to soured relations with ‘Maesaiah.
“I wish to point out that events that led to my suspension are baseless as they were perpetuated by the former First Lady ‘Maesaiah Thabane.”
The matter will be heard on 16 November 2020.
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