Ann Eveleth
Suspended Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela’s fate will be decided next Tuesday after an internal probe found he committed several acts of misconduct and impropriety.
The transport parastatal’s board of directors is due to meet on Tuesday to consider disciplinary action against Ndhlela after an internal disciplinary inquiry found he committed an act of “gross misconduct”, two acts of misconduct, a breach of fiduciary duty (a duty held or given in trust) and an act of disloyalty to Transnet.
The findings by retired judge John Trengove, who headed the inquiry, are dated December 18 but have been kept under wraps pending the board’s decision. A summary of Trengove’s 39-page report now in the possession of the Mail & Guardian concludes that Ndhlela “engaged in an act of gross misconduct” when he bugged the telephone of his personal assistant, Maria Mashiane.
Transnet suspended Ndhlela in September 1997 amid widespread allegations that the shadowy and now defunct Business Information Services Department under his control had engaged in illegal surveillance of Transnet employees. A de-bugging search of the parastatal’s Transnet Park headquarters, however, revealed nothing.
But Transnet also temporarily suspended two of the department’s employees, Felix Ngwenya and ex-Military Intelligence operative Jan Holliday, and subsequently charged Ndhlela with bugging Mashiane’s telephone and authorising Holliday’s contact — purportedly with the support of Transnet chair Louise Tager — with Durban- based Armstrong Security.
Armstrong is now suing the parastatal for more than R2-million it claims is owed for surveillance and investigation undertaken on behalf of Transnet executives. Transnet has denied authorising the illegal investigation and has so far refused to pay.
Although it is the Armstrong allegations which could prove the most costly for taxpayers, it is the only charge on which Trengove’s summary is silent. The probe found Ndhlela guilty of every other charge put to him.
Among these, Trengove found Ndhlela committed an act of disloyalty by failing to disclose commissions worth
R750 000 he received from Credit Life Services between February 1993 and April 1996. The commissions were paid for his role in implementing a funeral benefit scheme for Transnet workers. The scheme was underwritten by XB Brokers, a company which later went into liquidation amid allegations that it had defrauded the workers.
Trengove found that Ndhlela was “materially interested in the Transnet Funeral Benefit Scheme [and] was obliged to disclose this interest, but he failed to do so”.
Ndhlela had also “breached his fiduciary relationship as a director” by authorising payments of R146 000 to recruitment company Insearch Practitioners CC for services not rendered to Transnet.
He had further, according to Trengove’s findings, “committed an act of misconduct” in December 1996 when he instructed another recruitment agency, Executive Resources, to recruit for the post of director and/or executive director of Transnet at a cost of
R100 000, when Transnet had not called for such an appointment.
Trengove found Ndhlela had contravened the Companies Act when he failed to disclose his directorship of Screenworld (Pty) Ltd, but that this was “not an act of misrepresentation or dishonesty”, as alleged by Transnet.
Ndhlela’s failure to disclose a September 1995 bid by Rennies to recruit him as a director was, however, “a breach of his fiduciary duty” as a Transnet director. Transnet and Rennies compete in the cargo handling industry.
Ndhlela had also committed an act of misconduct in failing to ensure his receipt of company firearms was recorded in the firearms register. Transnet alleged Ndhlela kept these in his office.
Transnet representative Thami Didiza and Ndhlela’s attorney, Daan Mostert, both declined to comment ahead of next week’s meeting.