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Airports Company SA (Acsa) will soon decide whether or not to suspend its CEO, Bongani Maseko.
This follows a presuspension hearing on Thursday this week that Maseko attended to face allegations of misconduct.
“On the information available to the company, it appears you have committed gross misconduct,” Acsa chairperson Skhumbuzo Macozoma wrote in a letter, which City Press has seen a copy of, to Maseko late last month.
Macozoma lists five allegations of gross misconduct.
These allegations include awards of tenders and contracts to Tswelokgotso Trading Enterprises and retail tenders relating to Exclusive Books at the OR Tambo and Cape Town airports.
The second allegation related to a failure to “implement recommendations to misconduct emanating from the City Lodge tender”.
Macozoma also alleged that Maseko defeated the ends of justice regarding Tswelokgotso Trading Enterprises.
“You have disregarded or contravened section 76 and 77 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008, regarding the above-mentioned tenders,” he added.
“You have committed or permitted unfair labour practice against certain employees who were involved or working on [Tswelokgotso Trading Enterprizes] contracts,” Macozoma said.
These allegations follow from an Acsa board meeting held in March that resolved to form an ad hoc committee to probe alleged irregularities in Acsa’s supply chain.
An outside company, Dr VS Mncube Consulting, was appointed to conduct a probe.
In July, Dr VS Mncube Consulting presented an interim report on the outcome of the investigation to the board.
The probe was finalised and presented to the Acsa board at the end of August.
Molatelo Makhura, a labour lawyer with Cheadle Thompson and Haysom, who represents Maseko, said that Maseko had been denied access to the report.
“As you are no doubt aware, suspension has substantial social and personal implications ... to remove our client from his workplace in the circumstances where there are no objectively reasonable grounds to do so and where our client is denied an opportunity meaningfully to make representations will be extremely prejudicial to him as an employee and executive director of the company,” Makhura wrote in a letter to Macozoma on behalf of Maseko.
Makhura said on Friday that his “client was traumatised as it is and that he would like to respect the internal process at Acsa”.
He said that the hearing took place on Thursday.
“My client is now waiting to see whether Acsa will suspend him or not,” Makhura said.
