Unions welcome Post Office chief’s exit

Trade unions have welcomed the departure of South African Post Office (Sapo) chief executive Motshoanetsi Lefoka.

It was the trade union’s complaints that led to an inquiry into the affairs of Sapo under Lefoka.

Lefoka had been on special leave since October last year while the Sapoe board probed irregular and fruitless expenditure under her and former chief operating officer John Wentzel.

In a statement, the board said it had reached a “mutually agreed separation” with Lefoka.

“This follows an earlier announcement relating to agreed special leave of the Group Chief Executive Officer as part of the board's ongoing governance reviews process,” it said.

The terms of the agreement were confidential, the board said.

Vuyo Mahlati, board chairwoman, referred enquiries to the Post Office spokesman Lungile Lose.

Lose said in an emailed response that a hearing into was held into the a breach of governance and the Public Finance Management Act related to the controversial lease entered into by Sapo at a building in Centurion.

Lefoka, Wentzel and Marietjie Lancaster, group executive for strategy for breach, all appeared at the hearing to answer for the leave.

Separation agreements were entered with Lefoka and Wentzel.

Lancaster was exonerated by an independent external chairperson following a disciplinary enquiry.

He said the post office had approached the police to investigate criminal charges against two senior managers.

The post office had also developed a policy to manage any future irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

The Executive Committee (Exco) has appointed a subcommittee to monitor irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and to regularly report to Exco, Lose said.

The board will retain Nick Buick as acting Group Chief Executive Officer and would immediately begin recruiting a new group CEO.

Lefoka would not be the first post office CEO, over the decade, to be implicated in misconduct.

In 2006 the then Post Office CEO Khutso Mampeule pursued criminal charges for fraud against Maanda Manyatshe, who headed the post office from 1999 to 2004. Manyatshe and the Post Office settled out of court in 2008.

Mampeule was fired in May 2007 for undermining the Post Office board.

Clyde Mervin, chief negotiator for the Communications Workers Union at the Post Office, said CWU had been vindicated by the termination of Lefoka’s contract.

The union’s compliants had led to an investigation commissioned by the Post Office which revealed R425 million in irregular expenditure and fruitless expenditure of R19 million for the lease of a building in Centurion. A concern was that rental was being paid 10 months before staff moved into the office.

Mervin said, “It is very clear that our analysis was correct.”

CWU said it urged the board to release the findings of the investigations as soon as possible as it would expose others it believes are also implicated.

The Post Office achieved a three percent rise in revenue to R5.8 billion for the year to March last year in the face of falling mail volumes placing pressure on mail delivery, its core business.

Postbank, which reported a nine percent increase to R4 billion in depositors funds for the 2011 financial year, is expected to boost the Post Office group in future as government’s grant to the Post Office will be reduced to nothing by 2014/2015 to make the entity self-reliant.

Earlier this week Dina Pule, Minister of Communications, said,the establishment of Postbank as a fully-fledge bank was “progressing well”. It’s board would be appointed by March.

Pule said she had seconded Rosey Sekese, Communications director-general, and the department’s financial director Sam Vilakazi to work with a task team which includes the police and forensic auditors KPMG, who are investigating the R42 million fraud at Postbank. - Asha Speckman

History of South African Post Office CEOs:

1999 - 2004 Maanda Manyatshe - (The first real CEO) Fraud and tender mismanagement allegations and a criminal charge was

brought against him by his successor Khutso Mampeule for a refurbishment tender worth R99.5 million awarded in 2003 to Vision

Design House. The allegations led to him resigning with immediate effect as MD MTN SA after joining it in November 2004.

2004 - May 2007 Khutso Mampeule fired for allegedly undermining the board and exposing the post office to R1 billion in claims

after he pursued charges against Mantyashe other post office executives he alleged received undeclared payments from a tender.

Motshoanetsi Lefoka is appointed acting CEO.

November 2007 -January 2012 Motshoanetsi Lefoka, who had spent five years as post office Chief Operating Officer, is appointed

SA Post Office CEO until her contract is terminated in January 2012 in a mutual separation agreement with the post office board.

Lefoka is implicated in multimillion rands worth of irregular and fruitless expenditure.