Ann Eveleth
A government probe into job reservation at a private construction giant blamed a single official for racist hiring practices, but ignored the role of three managing directors when it effectively exonerated the company.
Thuso Ramaema, the department chief director tasked by Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal to probe allegations of racial and gender discrimination at construction and engineering giant Group Five, singled out a lone official for “breaking the rules”, but gave a clean bill of health to the company.
The official, divisional human resources director Johan Gouws, resigned last month before Ramaema’s probe found him guilty of “violating the policies of Group Five by practicing job reservation against blacks and women”.
Asmal launched the probe in February after the Mail & Guardian published claims by executive recruiter Dick Muller that qualified black and female candidates were rejected by the firm which hired him to fill three senior vacancies last year. Group Five holds millions of rands in contracts with the departments of water affairs and public works, as well as other public entities.
But Ramaema effectively cleared the company’s record, finding that it “had a non- discriminatory employment and black empowerment policy”.
This was despite a subsequent admission by Group Five chief executive officer Mike Lomas that he had personally reprimanded three managing directors “in respect of administrative inefficiency during the recruitment process as well as their passive attitude towards the group’s employment equity policy during the assignment”. He did not name the three managing directors.
Lomas’ admission lends credence to Muller’s claim that Gouws had twice suggested to him that he was merely following higher orders.
“The only person who ever told me anything was Gouws, but it was my impression he was acting on other people’s instructions. I don’t think Gouws is the only bad guy. I think he knows the guys he is hiring for and what will and won’t go down with them,” said Muller.
Gouws had told Muller during a heated conversation that, “It’s my fucking prerogative [to exclude black and female candidates],” but he had also said, “the whole question of whether we have blacks or women is quite sensitive, in the sense that we will probably be forced to employ, uh, black people, which I think personally is the right thing to do. Obviously the profit centres are more difficult to convince.”
In response to the probe findings, Gouws denied he had violated company policy and pointed to an “independent internal” probe conducted by Group 5 director George Thomas and his colleague Gibson Thula, the only black director out of 50 at the company. That probe, said Gouws, had found “no firm evidence” that a discriminatory instruction had been given.
“I resigned from Group Five to spare the organisation I love embarrassment and commercial harm. Most importantly because the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry had threatened to deny Group Five any contracts even before the investigation had been finalised,” he added.
To support his defence, Gouws sent the M&G a curious reference letter drafted for him by Lomas. Lomas says in a letter that he was sorry to see Gouws go, and adds: “All I can say is that what [Gouws] is accused of is in complete contradiction of everything I know of the man. It is likely that he was severely provoked and, whatever words were said are in conflict with his commitment over many years to employment equity.”
Lomas had assured Department of Public Works Director General Sipho Shezi that Gouws had left owing to “steps” the company had taken after realising “something had gone wrong”.
Shezi said: “I am happy they have taken some steps to remedy the situation, but I will be keeping an eye on them.”