Minister Tolashe's former helper taking her to court

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Let's stay with the theme bongi uh to do with the social development minister and the storms and controversies swirling all around her. Let's speak now to the lawyer uh representing the minister's um shall we call her they calling her a former helper but this is a food aid. This is an official position that is provided for as I understand it in terms of the ministerial handbook.

[00:00:26]Timberlanin Pagati is that lawyer and joins us now for that conversation and will be better abled able to clarify all of those details for us. Good evening to you and thank you for your time. In your own words, it's one of those rather weird stories, isn't it, that you're hearing of the allegation that someone called the help helper of the minister and through the reporting of our colleagues at Daily Maverick, we learned that this person is actually part of the uh staff compliment of the minister in terms of the ministerial handbook, taken to the Eastern Cape, not at the official residences. And the most bizarre part of it which you will talk to better has to do with the salary and sharing of the salary uh with a member of the household of the minister. In your own words, what is your mandate? What are you pursuing here on behalf of your client?

[00:01:23]>> Uh Mr. Pagata, I suspect you might be muted.

[00:01:31]Good evening to Las and good evening to the viewers.

[00:01:36]>> Thank you very much. I must mention that um I'm the attorney um that has been instructed by the food aid or rather a helper um of the minister Cece Tasha >> um this is a very strange and shocking story because um when we when I consulted um with the food aid um she explains to me and she was in pain in explaining how she has been abused over the years by the minister but it doesn't stop them. The abuse that is uh both financially and emotionally >> h is extended to the family because uh the the employee was as you correctly said um assigned to work in the private resident as opposed to what many would have believed that he he was supposed to be in the official residence of the minister whether it is in Pritoria or is in Cape Town. But that has never happened at no point during the consultation um that the the foot aid indicated that he's been to Cape Town or Pritoria. So uh we have it in in in good um record that uh he was permanently based in the private residence in in East London and that now is later called Gbo. But more so when she was in East London, she was not only expected to attend to the um minister or assistant minister. She was expected to help or support the family. When I'm referring to the family, I'm talking about the daughter of the minister, the grandchildren of the minister, um the son of the minister, but also at some point it had it had become revealed that even the the the the cousins and the boyfriends of the of the of the children of the minister were expected to be assisted by the same helper. At one point he was a pain to explain that he was asked or forced to do laundry of the boyfriend and the cousin and those are the people that were staying in the residence. So the abuse is just beyond the family of the minister. It also include the extended family that were forcing the helper to do the laundry.

[00:04:00]>> But the there is an issue that has has pained me. Yes.

[00:04:05]>> About the missing money um that has been reported very widely.

[00:04:09]>> Yes. I can confirm um that the the the food aid or the helper has their money been taken away and this borders to criminality. Um and and I have been given a mandate to both h consider a criminal case against the minister but also consider a civil matter against the minister because the money that has been taken or stolen it has to be recovered.

[00:04:36]It belongs to her. It belongs to her children. She has worked for it.

[00:04:39]>> Yeah. For context, >> strange enough and and and >> I was I was going to say for context, let's let's let's refer to the appointment letter that our colleagues at Daily Maverick have published. It has an item there that's called minister's house allocation and then it gives the figure you know of what that minister's house allocation will be and then it says in brackets utilized for household.

[00:05:05]Is that what you are talking about? And in your work, have you found any basis in the prescripts of law in the contract if there's a contract of this uh food aid um that is the basis for this minister's house allocation?

[00:05:24]>> Yes, thank you.

[00:05:26]There is no um any law that permit um the family um to to to have um used the services of the helper. The the services were only allocated mainly to the minister and it does look like that has never happened. H she was primarily based in Islan and she was there to assist the family. The department has got many questions to answer because the department as the helper was the employee of the department has got a responsibility. For instance, I mean the issue of leave. The helper has never been given a leave by the department.

[00:06:04]The department decide to stop the payment of the salary without a due process. Um that has been followed. uh we have not been informed even to date and there is no record that suggests that the department has stopped the employment of the helper or the foot aid um on based on these reasons um that has not had come out and I think department has also a responsibility to answer to that >> so then close the loop for us when we hear that part of the salary was being taken and shared with the minister's daughter and There's audio of the minister talking to that point and basically sort of being dismissive about it and saying she doesn't understand where she gets involved in in that arrangement. How did that come about that that the the salary is being shared with with the allegedly being shared with the minister's daughter?

[00:07:04]Yeah, look um the the the dismissing of this is not going to assist because the money has been taken. The there is a overwhelming evidence that suggests that the money was deposited um to the account of the daughter and and and and this had happened on the instruction of the minister. Um hence um I mentioned that there is corrupt and and theft which bothers to criminality in the entire arrangement. The minister was aware of the money that was paid to her daughter and and any normal person.

[00:07:47]There is no way that you employ someone pay half of her salary to your daughter and you are not aware of that and that person reports to you. And and and in fact the the the the the the the helper did protest against that money. H but because of the relationship between the minister and the and the and the and and the and the and the helper and the powers of the minister the helper was very scared you know um to to to take on the minister. Hence h she decided that lot has been said in the media h but because of her health status because mentally she has been um affected by this case she decides to appoint an attorney who will represent her rights which have been violated by the minister and we are hoping that we will be able to have [clears throat] our day in court to ventilate these issues and we respect the process of the parliament. We respect the process by the public service commission but I think an agent matter must be evaluated in court as far as the monies that were taken or were missing or were transferred to the to the to the to the daughter at the instruction um of the minister. So very claim that we're having those are the allegations from the helper.

[00:09:02]Unfortunately, she's been um trying to avoid any interview and she have instructed me that I must take some of the interviews on her behalf because >> confirm for us then what are your immediate next steps? You mentioned something along the lines of being instructed along criminality as well as civil processes. Where are you in those processes? What are the next steps?

[00:09:27]My team is is busy working on that. At any time from now, we will be issuing summons. At any time from now, we will be going to the nearest police station to report the matter. But as I'm saying, h we are still assessing, we are analyzing, we are looking at the option.

[00:09:43]This is not a small case. This is a very big case. H we don't want to rush things. We want to do things right there unted in that justice in as far as the most vulnerable people in the country including the helper is achieved.

[00:10:04]>> All right, let's leave it there for this evening. Thank you for your time. That is Timberlan Pagati. You heard it from him directly. He is the lawyer representing the minister's uh former helper or aid. Food aid is the official title as far as the ministerial handbook is concerned. So that's where we are.