Post Office boss Khutso Mampeule won the first legal round in his battle to keep his job on Friday.
The Pretoria High Court ruled that he was entitled to receive a copy of a report into governance problems at the Post Office.
The report was compiled by an auditing firm after Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri suspended Mampeule for allegedly ”undermining the authority of the board”.
She received the report in March, after which she told the Post Office board that she intended removing Khutso Mampeule as a director. The board would then have to decide on Mampeule’s position as CEO.
She scheduled a stakeholders’ meeting for this coming Monday to discuss her proposal. The minister represents the government, which is the sole shareholder in the Post Office.
Mampeule asked for the full report to prepare for the meeting, but was denied it by Matsepe-Casaburri who said it was ”confidential”. He made an urgent application to the Pretoria High Court, asking that he be given the full report, and sufficient time to prepare for the meeting.
Judge Chris Botha on Friday ordered the minister to give a copy of the report to Mampeule. Because of this, Monday’s meeting has to be postponed.
”I’m really delighted that the judge has really seen everything as we have argued, and I think in the spirit of transparency I feel justice has been done,” Mampeule said outside court.
He realised that the court’s decision was only the first step towards retaining his position.
”It is very unfortunate that it had to drag on like this, because this issue should have been resolved much more easily without wasting taxpayers’ money,” he said.
Matsepe-Casaburri was not at court herself, but her spokesperson Albi Modise said she would be informed about the decision and decide on further action.
”The minister needs to look at argument presented by the judge … to see if the minister agrees with judge or if she going to take whatever action to settle this matter once and for all,” he said. ”She’ll have to decide on the most viable and sensible way of trying to deal with this matter.”
‘Mr Clean’
The Mail & Guardian reported at the end of March this year that Matsepe-Casaburri had moved to remove Mampeule, dubbed ”Mr Clean” for his robust campaign against procurement sleaze.
Mampeule’s cancellation of contracts at the parastatal, among them a controversial R100-million deal to revamp branches, earned him powerful enemies and soured relations with his board.
The board suspended Mampeule in November pending a forensic investigation into corporate governance and management issues.
It was the outcome of this investigation, conducted by auditors SizweNtsaluba VSP, that was cited by Matsepe-Casaburri as she rounded on Mampeule.
The briefing Matsepe-Casaburri gave the board consisted of an 11-page summary of SizweNtsaluba’s findings and recommendations. The summary concentrated on Mampeule’s alleged failings and not those of others.
Mampeule said in a statement at the time that the findings, as conveyed, ”neither reflect a balanced view nor the reality of events and facts, including some in respect of which I have already been exonerated”. He said he intended to cooperate with the envisaged disciplinary process and believed ”a fair and independent judge will clear me of all allegations”.