Uyinene Mrwetyana murder accused, has been summarily dismissed at the South African Post Office (SAPO) for intentionally misleading the organisation and stating under oath that he had never been convicted of any criminal offense.
The man misled the post office about his conviction related to a 1998 carjacking conviction with an eight-year sentence, five years of which were served with three years suspended.
Last month, the SAPO employee, allegedly raped and brutally killed Mrwetyana at Clareinch Post Office. She was studying film and media at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, has implored the South African Post Office (SAPO) Board and Management to intensify security measures at its branches and appropriately act against employees who have failed to adhere to internal human resources policies and protocols.
On Friday, the Minister met with SAPO to receive a comprehensive report following the brutal rape and murder of Mrwetyana.
“When SAPO took over the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grants payments in 2018, all current customer-facing and other key employees were subjected to State Security Agency (SSA) Personnel Suitability screening.
“Out of the 13 000 employees, SSA had found 300 records, 174 of which were convictions and the implicated employee was one of them. His conviction related to a 1998 carjacking conviction with an eight-year sentence, five years of which were served with three years suspended,” the Post Office said.
These findings were made available to SAPO officials in June 2018. However, the information was not disclosed to the Executive and Board.
“SAPO is in the process of further investigations to ascertain the appropriate actions to be taken against identified employees. In this respect, the Minister urged SAPO to swiftly act on affected employees, especially those in the mail and frontline services,” the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technologies said.
The Ministry said the SAPO Heads of Human Resources as well as Security and Investigations have been placed on precautionary suspension whilst the investigation is proceeding.
The Minister also raised her concerns about the 2016 Collective Agreement on Salary Adjustments and Substantive Issues Pertaining to Employees in the Bargaining Unit.
The agreement was entered into between SAPO and the Communication Workers Union, South African Postal Workers Union and Democratic Postal and Communications Workers Union.
It relates to, amongst others, the conversion of casual employees.
In terms of clause 5.3.5 of the Collective Agreement, the Parties agreed to “…deviate, from the traditional recruitment process (interviews, minimum requirements, vetting etc)”.
“This was in compliance with section 198B of the Labour Relations Act as these employees served SAPO for a number of years. It is recorded that the accused entered the employ of SAPO as a labour broker employee and was converted to a permanent employee through the afore-mentioned agreement,” the Ministry said.
To confirm that there are no similar instances, the Minister has directed the Director-General to ensure that security vetting is instituted in all State-Owned Entities in the Ministry’s portfolio. – SAnews.gov.za
