SA’s first female admiral gets bonus after 2 criminal convictions…

Mar 22 2009 Erika Gibson of Beeld newspaper reports that South Africa's only female admiral, rear-admiral Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala -- convicted of two criminal offences last year which were committed during the ‘assessed merit-year in 2007’  --  still received a R25,000 merit bonus on March 15…

the Unsinkable female admiral

Litchfield-Tshabalala – dubbed the ‘Unsinkable Female Admiral’ by dumbfounded defence force colleagues -- still remains the SA Navy's director of transformation, but she’s been on leave since August last year after second criminal conviction that year.

• Ever since her first criminal conviction in March 2008 (for offences committed during the bonus ‘merit-year’ in 2007 -- the country’s minister of defence is still trying to decide whether to just fire their old struggle-comrade, or whether to allow her to depart her job with a lucrative golden handshake instead.

Clearly this unsinkable comrade-admiral must have some kind of mysterious hold over the South Africa’s military’s top leaders – there’s no other way to explain why she still keeps on receiving her lucrative monthly paychecks plus a merit bonus for 2007 - despite two criminal convictions in 2008 -- for defrauding the State in 2007…

• see our previous report on the Unsinkable rear-admiral Litchfield-Tshabalala here

The Defence Ministry's chief of communications Siphiwe Dlamini confirmed that the Military Court of Appeals confirmed her conviction.He confirmed she's been in leave since August last year – and also noted that ‘the merit bonuses for senior fleet personnel were paid for the 2007/2008 financial year which ‘had nothing to do with her year of duty for which this merit-bonus was paid'.

• "During that period of assesment, she had not yet been found guilty of any charges which could have influenced her merit bonus'.

He also his mantra already chanted in December last year, confirming that she ‘applied for a voluntary dismissal packet’, and that ‘the decision to allow her to leave military service will have to be made by minister of defence comrade Charles Nqakula.’

• He’d said exactly the same thing last December.
  Apparently for some deeply mysterious reason, the minister just can't make up his mind whether his old struggle-comrade Litchfield-Tshabalala, should be allowed to eave of her own accord with a fat seperation packet -  or be fired.

Moral responsibility?

Advocate Pikkie Greeff of the SA National Defence Force Union said in reaction that granting a merit-bonus to a senior officer after she's been found guilty of criminal offences, "raises serious questions about the moral responsibility in the top leadership structure of the defence force.'

• "The message which the rear-admiral's bonus of merit sends to the rest of the defence force, that corrupt behaviour by senior officers is most certainly being rewarded,' he said.
  http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2489857,00.html

Comrade Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala (left, picture by Denzil Maregele of Beeld) meanwhile still stays on in her lush Navy jobm while insiders have started claling her 'the unsinkable Khanyisile." She meanwhile, declines all official comment.

On Nov 19 2008 at the Pretoria military court, she was found guilty of lodging a false claim for R600 for guesthouse accommodation. And that was her second conviction: earlier in 2008, she was also convicted for submitting a false claim for a ‘stolen’government computer valued at R15,000, convicted for crimen-injuria and also convicted for assaulting a junior defence force member in 2007. Yet she was kept on in her job as the navy's director of transformation and even given a bonus of merit for doing a wonderful job.

Treated with kid gloves

She was convicted at military court in Pretoria  on Nov 18 2008 together with a female friend, warrant officer Longanathan Moodley. The two women were found guilty of defrauding the Defence Force,  (i.e. they stole from the national treasury) after they submitted an invoice for staying at a Durban guesthouse in October 2007 they had however never stayed at.  She was treated with kid gloves,  tried in a military court instead of a civilian one ‘because Litchfield-Tshabalala holds such a high rank,” officials said at the time.

The military court prosecutor’s documents showed that the two women had not stayed at a specific Durban guesthouse in October 2007 – the period of ‘merit’ for which she received her latest bonus in other words.

The court found that the two women had submitted a claim for expense by falsifying an invoice. They had indeed been in Durban to attend a work session when the alleged offence was committed – but her personal assistant Seaman Makgamathe testified that they had stayed in another hotel instead, and then had checked out the second-last day of their visit and stayed for free with a local friend…

• The co-defendant, Moodley had made all the accommodation arrangements and also kept all the receipts, Makgamathe had testified.
• She further testified that the guest house accommodation ‘had not been to the rear-admiral's liking, so since seaman Moodley had been unable to find proper accommodation', the admiral and Makgamathe instead had stayed at a friend's house for free -- while co-defendant Moodley had spent the night ‘somewhere else’.

Litchfield-Tshabalala testified in her own defence that Moodley should take all the blame, because the rear-admiral ‘had not handled her own travel and accommodation claim and had not seen the receipt for the night's alleged accommodation in the guesthouse.” The rear-admiral also testified that she’d ‘only become aware of (the false claim) when military police had informed her of the investigation into the alleged fraud’. 

She said after the visit from the military police, she’d 'immediately paid back the money, and that in addition, it was also taken off her salary...'  see 

However, the court declined to believe her claim--  also because of her previous conviction for another fraud in March 2008, for an offence she had committed in 2007.

Jubilant headlines about SA’s first female admiral

As the SA fleet's'director of transformation,', senior-admiral junior-grade Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala had made jubilant headlines worldwide in 2004 when she was appointed as the country's very first female admiral. She was photographed with all the top navy brass and feminists worldwide were hailing it as another 'victory over apartheid'. 

However this glory soon fadedafter she was found guilty in March 2008 of the ' fraudulent 'loss' of state-property (an R15,000- laptop computer) as well as for crimen injuria and for assaulting a junior colleague. She ‘d claimed the computer had been stolen during a trip when it wasn’t...

At that time, she was fined a mere R6,000 and given a suspended sentence after she’d paid back the money  - yet despite demands back then, that she had to be fired from her job, the rear-admiral still sits in it to this day. 

Submitted her resignation - then withdrew it

She had initially submitted her resignation just before this first judgment -- but then quickly withdrew it and resubmitted an application for the Navy's lavish golden hand-shake package instead. 

This 'golden-handshake' application however was placed 'on ice' until this latest fraud trial had been completed and that’s where matters stand to this day. Then she still received a merit-bonus in March 2009…

So although a convicted thief and fraudster -- besides also having assaulted a junior navy staffer --- she has thus far still been allowed to keep her top Naval job. It's all a great mystery.