The ANC in Mpumalanga has reinstated Philemon Lukhele in the party’s chief whip’s office, starting on Monday.
Lukhele’s reinstatement comes a month after charges against him and his co-accused in the Hillary Gardee murder case were provisionally withdrawn in April.
Speaking to Sowetan on Sunday, provincial ANC chief whip Fidel Mlombo said: “He was initially suspended pending the development of his case and an internal disciplinary hearing. So those processes have unfolded. There have been a number of developments in his case that favoured him.
“So, we have decided to withdraw the suspension. But we will be following up on his case. Whatever development then will inform our next course of action.”
Mlombo said Lukhele’s disciplinary process ended on Wednesday and he was asked to return to work on Monday.
“The conclusion [of the disciplinary hearing] was that there is no charge that we can lay against him because we relied on the state’s case but because of them withdrawing the charges then we have to call him back but we told him that we will follow the development on this case and if needs to be, he might be suspended again or any other action taken depending on the merit of the case at that particular time.”
Mlombo said he was not involved in the actual disciplinary hearing but one of the charges Lukhele faced was putting the party into disrepute “but that charge relied on the outcome of the state’s case“.
“If the state could prove their case that he did commit that offense, we would have dismissed him immediately, but people are presumed innocent until proven otherwise so we wouldn’t jump the gun and [find] him guilty without the state proving he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Sowetan previously reported that charges against the accused – Lukhele, Albert Gama, Sipho Mkhatshwa and Hlabirwa Rassie Nkuna – had been provisionally withdrawn in the Mpumalanga high court in April after the state revealed three key witnesses had vanished, while others refused to testify.
Gardee, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, went missing on April 29 last year.
She had been shopping at the Nelspruit Plaza with her adopted three-year-old daughter.
The child was dropped off in Kamagugu township that night.
Gardee’s lifeless body was later found by Timber plantation workers about 60km outside Mbombela, on the way to Sabie.
chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za
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