Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has dismissed Kedibone Madiehe (pictured) as chief executive of the Government Pensions Administration Agency (GPAA) after a disciplinary hearing found her guilty of serious procurement-related misconduct.
The GPAA administers pension and related benefits on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund, which serves about 1.7 million public servants, pensioners, and dependants.
The disciplinary chairperson delivered the guilty finding on 24 August and pronounced dismissal as the sanction on 7 September. Godongwana gave effect to the sanction under section 16B(1), read with section 17(1)(a), of the Public Service Act. A dismissal letter was issued to Madiehe on 8 September, when the dismissal took effect. The Ministry of Finance announced the outcome on 11 September 2026.
The hearing found that Madiehe had, among other things, breached the Public Finance Management Act and the GPAA’s supply-chain management and delegation prescripts. She was also found to have breached her fiduciary and contractual duties, shown gross dereliction of duty, prejudiced the agency, and exposed it to financial and legal risk.
The disciplinary process arose from several forensic investigations initiated by National Treasury in response to allegations, whistle-blower tip-offs, and media reports concerning irregularities in the GPAA’s procurement of new head-office accommodation, a security-services contract, and corporate uniforms.
Madiehe was placed on precautionary suspension in August 2025 to allow the investigations to proceed. After the investigations identified serious procurement irregularities and acts of misconduct involving Madiehe in her capacity as the GPAA’s accounting officer, formal disciplinary proceedings were instituted under the disciplinary code applicable to members of the public service’s Senior Management Service.
The hearing, which began on 2 February, was chaired by a retired High Court judge. Both Madiehe and the employer were legally represented.
“A decision of this nature, and the sanction that accompanies it, is never taken lightly. However, the evidence from the investigation and the seriousness of the transgressions required a proportionate sanction,” Godongwana said. “Trust is earned through accountability.”
Wider governance concerns
The Ministry did not disclose the values of the procurement transactions or specify which conduct relating to each transaction resulted in the findings against Madiehe. It identified head-office accommodation, security services, and corporate uniforms as the matters that gave rise to the investigations and disciplinary process but did not link all the irregular expenditure previously reported at the GPAA to the charges on which she was found guilty.
As Moonstone reported in February, Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration had noted media reports that the agency incurred R145 million in irregular and wasteful expenditure. This reportedly formed part of more than R2 billion in irregular transactions reflected in the GPAA’s audited financial statements for the year to the end of March 2025.
Committee chairperson Jan de Villiers said at the time that the issues highlighted in the reports were consistent with longstanding concerns raised in Parliament, including weaknesses in procurement controls and a culture of poor consequence management. He cautioned that the reported problems appeared to form part of a broader pattern of governance failure rather than being isolated incidents.
The committee also referred to the partial recovery of R35.9m from a service provider associated with an irregular lease for an office block intended to become the agency’s head office. It welcomed the recovery but said this did not absolve those who had authorised irregular expenditure or remove the need for appropriate consequence management.
Job Stadi Mngomezulu, the GPAA’s deputy director-general for corporate services, will continue as acting chief executive until the recruitment process for a permanent chief executive has been completed.
Mngomezulu has been instructed to ensure that governance arrangements and mitigation measures are considered and implemented immediately to restore the GPAA to a sound footing and ensure good governance.
