Suspended Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) chief executive Dr Renosi Mokate has been found guilty on most charges flowing from disciplinary steps brought against her in August last year.
Mokate was suspended after audits of the SFF identified financial losses relating to oil-trading operations that fell under her authority.
The board of the Central Energy Fund (CEF), the holding company for all the state’s oil interests, said at the time it appeared that proper risk-management procedures had not been followed. The SFF is responsible for the maintenance of South Africa’s strategic oil stocks.
Mokate faced eight charges, including allegations of negligence. These related to her management of certain oil-trading transactions, resulting in actual losses of R70-million as well as potential losses of a further R71-million. She was also charged with making representations to the SFF and CEF boards that she knew, or ought to have known, were false.
It is not clear on which charges Mokate was found guilty. Neither Mokate’s spokesperson nor the acting CEF chairperson, Coen Kruger, were prepared to comment in detail on the findings. However, a source close to the proceedings said Mokate had been convicted on most of the serious charges.
Kruger said Mokate would be given an opportunity to address the board — either in person or in writing — before it took a decision on her fate.
He said there was no further internal appeal procedure, though Mokate can take action through the courts or the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.