‘He lacks authority and independence of mind; and has failed to demonstrate that he abhors corruption’
We, on 30th January 2024 met Minister Letsholathebe with his then Permanent Secretary Ms Maroba where at we escalated the issue of Dr Galani and BIUST to his office. At the said meeting, Dr. Letsholathebe sounded as though he understood our issue and he said he will convene the BIUST Council to hear them regarding what could have happened. One issue that we specifically raised with him was that this a matter that involves someone who was raising a red flag about allegations of corruption and provided some documentation as evidence, instead of the institution investigating the allegations that involved Professor Totolo, the Vice Chancellor of the University, it rather turned on the whistle blower, and dismissed him. We indicated to the Minister that the institution claims to have investigated Professor Totolo but they have refused to give us the report of his investigation. We wanted the minister to at least found out and assist with the report. In his response the Minister does not even deal with that point, he rather finds an easy escape route that the employee should approach the labour department or the courts. When escalated the matter to him, we knew all these routes, we thought that as Minister he could intervene to avoid such matters reaching the courts.
We must make it known that we were very much disappointed by the Minister’s response. In fact, this response shows us that Minister Letsholathebe is spineless, he lacks authority and independence of mind. He cannot make his own independent decisions. This is not for the first time that the Minister exhibits this attitude, he buried his head in the sand again when we wanted him to intervene in the impasse between BEC and the unions until the impasse culminated in an examination crisis resulting in some students not having coursework grades.
In fact, Minister Letsholathebe has demonstrated that he is an accomplice to corruption. He cannot stand to be counted to show his disdain for corrupt tendencies and practices. He has no moral turpitude to claim that he abhors corruption while he left an opportunity to investigate allegations of corruption to pass by in an institution within his ambit.