Department of Social Development’s underqualified chief of staff resigns without facing disciplinary hearing

A chief of staff unlawfully appointed to support Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe in 2025 has tendered her resignation after having been suspended on full pay for more than three months.

The resignation of Lesedi Mabiletja, who Daily Maverick revealed was just 22 at the time of her appointment and lacked the minimum legal requirements for the post, was announced in an internal memo to staff at the Department of Social Development (DSD) dated 20 January 2026.

“Ms Lesedi Mabiletja, who served as a Personal Assistant to the Minister and had been appointed in August 2025 to act as the Chief of Staff in the Ministry for a period of six (6) months has tendered her resignation, effective 08 January 2026,” read the memo.

“The Department expresses its appreciation to Ms Mabiletja for her service, commitment, and the contribution made during her tenure, and wishes her well in her future endeavours.”

The department’s reminder that Mabiletja was appointed on a six-month contract would mean that her tenure was due to expire in January in any event — seemingly bringing a neat end to this saga.

In reality, however, multiple unanswered questions remain — none of which department spokesperson Nomfundo Xulu-Lentsoane had responded to by the time of writing, despite having committed to doing so.

Explicit warning ignored

Mabiletja had originally been appointed in 2024 as Tolashe’s private secretary — despite the fact that, as Daily Maverick subsequently revealed, the department’s top officials had explicitly been warned by their human resources (HR) department that Mabiletja did not even meet the minimum requirements for the role.

An HR document obtained by Daily Maverick reminded the department that the DSD’s top officials, including Deputy Minister Ganief Hendricks, were present at a meeting on 1 August 2024, in which they were informed that Mabiletja did not meet the requirements for the post.

Mabiletja’s appointment as private secretary was nonetheless approved by the acting DSD director-general, Peter Netshipale.

Given that the department already knew that it was unlawful for Mabiletja to be appointed at the far more junior level of private secretary, the fact that she would go on to be promoted to acting chief of staff — one of the most senior positions in government, with an annual salary of almost R1,4-million — remains inexplicable.

Inexplicable, that is, beyond the fact that Mabiletja appears to be the niece of Tolashe’s favoured special adviser, Ngwako Kgatla.

After Daily Maverick reported on Mabiletja’s appointment as chief of staff, she was quietly removed from the position in September 2025, with no reasons given.

Appearing before Parliament on 9 October to account for this and several other questionable hiring and firing decisions, Tolashe confirmed that Mabiletja had been placed on “precautionary suspension” with full pay, and claimed that Tolashe’s former chief of staff, Zanele Simmons, had smuggled her into the employ of the department by falsifying Mabiletja’s CV.

No evidence was provided of this, and no suggestion given as to what Simmons’ motivation could have been.

The day after Tolashe’s parliamentary appearance, she wrote to acting DG Netshipale to present him with disciplinary charges relating to, among other allegations, having “failed to scrutinise the appointments in the office of the Minister, thus bringing the Minister in disrepute” — an apparent reference to Mabiletja’s appointment.

In other words, Tolashe pinned all the blame for Mabiletja’s appointment on Simmons and Netshipale — and seemingly none on herself, Mabiletja, or Mabiletja’s uncle Kgatla.

During this period, Tolashe also lied under oath to Parliament, claiming to the social development committee that Daily Maverick had apologised for its “false reporting” on her department’s staffing issues. We had not.

A growing trend

Mabiletja does not appear to have faced any disciplinary investigation during her suspension on full pay, despite the fact that if Tolashe’s official narrative is that Mabiletja’s CV was falsified, this must presumably have been done with Mabiletja’s knowledge.

More concerning is what appears to be a growing trend of government employees simply resigning before a disciplinary investigation can be concluded, either with or without the collusion of superiors.

Daily Maverick reported earlier this month that Independent Development Trust CEO Tebogo Malaka, who attempted to bribe journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh, had also resigned rather than face a disciplinary hearing.

In Malaka’s case, external criminal investigations are ongoing.

But where criminal charges are not being pursued, as in the case of Mabiletja, the person effectively escapes any accountability for wrongdoing. DM