Maru and Others v MEC for Transport and Community Safety, Eastern Cape and Others

The applicants were senior employees in the Scholar Transport Unit of the Eastern Cape Department of Transport. An internal investigation was conducted by Mr Tshaka, a Deputy Director: Security, into alleged fraudulent and irregular conduct relating to scholar transport allocation letters, invoices, routes and kilometres. Tshaka compiled an investigation report (28 October 2022) and a supplementary report (16 January 2023) containing adverse findings of culpability against the applicants. The applicants were placed on precautionary suspension, later precautionary transfers, and subsequently restricted in their work functions. They were invited to respond to findings after the report was effectively finalised and were not furnished with requested documentation to enable a meaningful response. Disciplinary proceedings were inconsistently pursued and delayed. The applicants approached the High Court seeking to have the investigation report declared unlawful and set aside, relying on PAJA alternatively the principle of legality.

The investigation report dated 28 October 2022 and the supplementary report dated 16 January 2023 were reviewed and set aside. The respondents were ordered, jointly and severally, to pay the applicants’ costs including counsel’s fees on Scale C.

The case affirms that internal investigation reports by organs of state may be reviewable where they make definitive findings of culpability and adversely affect employees’ rights. It clarifies the boundary between permissible fact-finding investigations and unlawful exercises of public power, reinforces the centrality of procedural fairness and the audi alteram partem rule, and confirms that mootness will not bar review where ongoing practical prejudice exists.