Former CEO of the Civil Society Indaba Jacqui Brown’s reinstatement yesterday after being found not guilty of serious financial misconduct by the Commission for Concilliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), will not jeopardise plans for the World Summit, which begins in a few days.
Brown was suspended in November last year after allegations by the South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that she was engaged in financial malpractices and ”exceeded her mandate when hiring staff”.
Cosatu was also unhappy that Brown was earning an ”excessively high salary” of more than R30 000 a month.
An audit conducted by Sangoco found Brown guilty.
The issue threw the civil society process into disarray, with Brown’s supporters saying she was ousted by a ”sexist” clique within San- goco who were jealous of her successes at driving the civil society process forward.
Yesterday the CCMA said the allegations against Brown were ”unsubstantiated”. Rumours that Brown will be entering the Civil Society offices in Braamfontein on Friday to take over the job she was kicked out of months ago are incorrect says Neva Makgetla, Cosatu official and representative to the summit.
”If this had taken place two months ago there would have been serious problems about the secretariat and civil society. All this will mean now is a financial implication. She will have to be paid a fat salary. She won’t be going back to the secretariat to replace Desmond [Lesejane, the current CEO of the Indaba, who replaced Brown].
”This is not going to affect preparations for the summit. In any case her reinstatement is being appealed by Sangoco. That will take a while to resolve,” Makgetla says.