Suspended BMC CEO alleges corruption
Sharon Mathala | Monday July 3, 2023 06:00
According to papers filed before court, Tsheboeng says he was appointed CEO back in May by the Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare. He was, however, suspended from work by the Board chairperson on June 16, a suspension he is now challenging.
The disgruntled CEO further tells the court that according to his suspension letter, he was prohibited from entering the BMC buildings and was ordered to surrender all BMC properties in his possession.
He further says that the Board chairperson further directed that his access to company emails must be enabled. “On 22 June,2023 , the Minister of Entrepreneurship Karabo Gare wrote to me denouncing the decision of the 2nd respondent (Board chairperson) as unlawful and of no force and effect. This should have marked the end of the matter, at least legally speaking,” Tsheboeng states in his urgent application.
He says following the Minister’s letter on June 25, 2023, he wrote to the Human Resource Executive at BMC to inform the office of the rescission letter. He says he was to his shock advised by the HR that despite the Minister’s letter, the Board chairperson informed the office that he remain suspended and that should he report to work the security had been instructed to arrest and escort him from the premises.
“The Minister has tried to prevail over (Boyce) Mhutsiwa without success, hence I have turned to this court for recourse. My suspension by Mhutsiwa is supposedly in terms of clause 20 of the BMC disciplinary code of procedures, 2016,” his papers further reads.
Tsheboeng tells the court that for a suspension to be legal it must be fair, reasonable and have real aspects of the matter reaching disciplinary hearing stage.
“The present suspension is grossly unfair and has no real prospects of ever reaching a hearing stage. This is for the simple reason that I have not done anything warranting disciplinary action. My suspension is a wanton and spectacular display of abuse of power by Mhutsiwa, chairperson of the Board of the respondent, who has unilaterally taken a decision to suspend me from work,” the suspended CEO argues.
According to him, his suspension is based on the fact that he signed contracts with distributors of meat products without the approval of the Board chairperson.
“This is surprising because the lack of contracts between BMC and distributors has been anomaly at BMC. Throughout my tenure at BMC, management has insisted that such contracts must be put in place. The issue was also identified by auditors as an anomaly throughout the years. I also found it to be strange that BMC could sell meat and meat products to distributors without contracts,” Tsheboeng explained further adding that according to him, this was unprofessional.
He further says sometimes early 2023 he requested the board secretary to draft standardised contracts of agreement between BMC and meat distributors. He further says the draft was duly shared with the rest of the Board and the chairperson. He further says that the BMC management then hired an experienced commercial lawyer to review the draft contract. After the lawyer completed the contract, the final submission was shared with the Board.
“Still in 2023, I had an interaction with the Board of BMC where I apprised it of the fact that BMC has started entering distribution agreements with distributors on the basis of the standard agreement as previously discussed but that certain distributors were opposed to some of the terms of the standard contract, in particular the requirement that the distributors must pay a 30% down payment upon invoice,” the suspended CEO further said.
He says it is these companies that he believes connived with the Board chairperson to have him suspended so they could continue doing business with BMC.
“It is all about self-interest and nothing else. Mhutsiwa’s devious aim is to have his friends' companies continuing to do business with BMC in an unregulated manner, without accountability whatsoever, thus running down BMC into the abyss,” the disgruntled suspended CEO claims.
Tsheboeng says his only crime is that he has frustrated corrupt cartels. Thus he says the decision to have him suspended has ‘no leg to stand on law” because it is only a Minister who can suspend and or remove an officer of CEO level.
“The Minister did not delegate anyone to take this decision on his behalf. In fact, the Minister has distanced himself from this decision.”
In the end, the suspended CEO has sought the court to intervene in his suspension. The case has been filed on urgency.
Reached for comment on the matter, Minister Gare confirmed the suspension of the CEO, he however explained that he could not elaborate on the matter with Mmegi because the case was before the court.
“ The aggrieved CEO came to us and informed us that he has been suspended. We reached out to the Board who also confirmed his suspension. We of course had to look at the matter and sought legal advise. In the end, we wrote to them to rescind the suspension but that has not happened. I cannot comment much because the case is before the court. I have not been briefed of any development from the courts,” the Minister said.