Axed communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has acceded to a request by President Jacob Zuma to postpone her legal action against communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda.

Mohlala says she has agreed to the president’s request to postpone her legal application for now and a new court date has been set for 26 August.

She says the president has agreed to get public service administration minister Richard Baloyi to step in and resolve the troubles between herself and Nyanda.

“I have decided to give the process with the minister Boloyi a chance to resolve the matter. If it is not completed before 26 August, I will go ahead with my court application,” she says.

A week ago, Nyanda made the stunning announcement that he had fired Mohlala. In an terse statement, he said his relationship with his director-general had broken down irreparably and that her employment had been terminated with immediate effect. (See Nyanda’s letter of termination to Mohlala.)

Mohlala followed up her axing with a labour court application accompanied by a tell-all affidavit, arguing that the minister did not have the power to dismiss her because Zuma appointed her.

The former director-general’s legal team also sent a letter to the office of the president, in the hope that Zuma would have her reinstated or redeployed into another area in government.

“We hope that with your intervention, the matter may be resolved amicably,” the letter reads.

Mohlala’s application was supposed to be heard by the labour court today, despite the fact that Nyanda’s answering affidavit has not yet been submitted.

She says she is hopeful that the intervention by Zuma will help resolve the dispute between herself and Nyanda.

Earlier this week, Mohlala told TechCentral that her relationship with Nyanda was not beyond repair. “I think if I could sit down with him face-to-face we could sort something out,” she told this website.

However, she said the roles assigned to the director-general and the minister would have to be clarified for their relationship to work in the long run. — Candice Jones, TechCentral