The Limpopo Department of Health has hired a law firm to peruse a Public Protector’s (PP's) report on Covid-19 PPE corruption and advise on what action to take despite having full-time and highly trained lawyers, says a City Press report.

Departmental spokesperson Neil Shikwambana said Masetla Attorneys were hired because they had already been contracted as evidence leaders in the matter of officials implicated in the PPE corruption.

According to the law firm’s response to the department, dated 7 November 2022 – reportedly its legal advice – it merely stated facts covered in a newspaper story, the findings of the PP and remedial action that the department was told to take.

Sources within the department said that the exercise was a waste of money as the PP’s report was written in a simple and clear language that a layman could understand.

‘They have advocates in the Labour Relations Department who can advise the HOD whether there are any officials who need to be charged or not according to any report, and it is the HOD’s decision to charge officials. The PP’s report was clear and simple, but they decided to waste money on lawyers to read it for them,’ a source said.

Shikwambana did not say how much the department spent, notes City Press.

It would not only be unprofessional but also grossly unprofessional for it to contract a professional and then seek to interfere with their work. It was, therefore, not a mere reading of the report, as would be done by any ordinary person, but an application of legal expertise to a set of facts to make an informed decision on whether or not the report of the PP may lead to a charge or charges.

Shikwambana said that when the PP’s report was issued, the disciplinary processes were underway. 

‘It would not have made financial sense to start a whole new process, procure a new set of legal or labour relations professionals to start new disciplinary processes on similar charges. The department, therefore, gave Masetla Attorneys the PP’s report to peruse and determine whether there were possible charges to be added to the employees' charge sheets.

‘When the department contracted the services of the evidence leader and presiding officer, it sought to ensure that the process embarked upon was credible because of their independence,’ he explained.

Shikwambana said that departmental legal officers could not read the documents for the contracted evidence leader, and he had to apply his mind to the matter himself.

‘The law firm does not say anything new. They got paid for advising the department to comply with the PP’s report,’ an unnamed source is quoted as saying.

Full City Press report