Vuyokazi Menye. (Tebogo Tshwane)
A former Public Investment Corporation (PIC) executive who was given over R7-million to leave the organisation says she wants her job back.
Vuyokazi Menye told the PIC commission headed by retired judge Lex Mpati that she was coerced into signing the R7.25-million settlement agreement after being overrun in legal fees and with her health deteriorating. This as she fought to clear her name after former chief Executive Dan Matjila ‘unfairly’ suspended her.
Menye was accused of not informing Matjila that he was the subject of a corruption investigation by police. The allegations of Matjila’s impropriety had come from a series of emails sent by anonymous whistleblower James Nogu who said Matjila had corruptly used his influence to secure PIC and external funding for an alleged girlfriend.
Menye was pushed out just before her subordinate Simphiwe Mayisela, head of IT security, was dismissed.
Mayisela had been tasked with opening a case with police on the allegations in order to obtain a section 205 subpoena that would be used to ask internet service providers to hand over the sender’s identity.
Menye had accompanied Mayisela to some of his meetings with police and had received regular updates from him about the progress of the case, which she forwarded to Matjila.
However, she said she was never aware that police had elected to investigate the allegations against Matjila as opposed to trying to uncover Nogu’s identity.
“In my view by unfairly suspending me, publishing my name as one of the employees that were involved in information leaks and making me sign a settlement agreement against my wish was to make me a scapegoat,” Menye told the commission.
Menye told the commission that despite being the head of IT, her and her team were sidelined in Matjila’s quest to find Nogu. Matjila had appointed external companies BCX and SensePost as well as forensic investigators Naledi Advisory Services in an effort to find Nogu.
Not only did this breach the PIC’s IT governance controls, Menye said “what was even more strange was that the CEO was the one that was inappropriately spearheading the investigation to find the whistleblower while the very allegations of corruption were levelled against him”.
On the day that she was suspended, Menye said she had two meetings with Matjila.
In the first meeting where Menye was accompanied by her team, Matjila had asked for the team to leave. He then demanded that Menye give him all the system administrator passwords of all the IT systems in the PIC.
Menye refused. “I will be breaching the IT governance and controls and exposing the organisation to high risk,” she told him.
“He stood up and shouted at me: ‘Vuyokazi this is my organisation. I own PIC, give me all the system admin passwords’,”. She was given a deadline of 10am to consolidate the passwords in an email.
At 9:30am she was called into the second meeting with Matjila and the head of HR Chris Pholwane where he handed her a precautionary suspension letter. “I was shocked and asked him about the reasons of my suspension … I begged them to give me some time to consult with my legal advisor before signing the letter but they refused.
“They did not even allow me to go through the letter.”
Menye said that Matjila shouted again: “Vuyokazi, I am not dismissing you I am suspending you with full pay, sign this letter and leave now!”
Menye said even though she insisted on going through a disciplinary to clear her name, on the two occasions that she met advocate Nazeer Cassim, who was leading the process, he “begged” her to take a settlement offer of unspecified value without concluding the disciplinary. He first advised her to settle on December 2017 before the disciplinary hearings started and again in April 2018.
Five months since her suspension, Menye told the commission that, at the time, she felt like she had been “backed into a corner”. “My health was deteriorating my reputation damaged and I had a huge legal bill,” explained Menye.
Eventually, her husband convinced her to take a settlement of R7.25-million, which was offered on April 11, 2018.
Menye said she has not been able to find work since she left the PIC, due to these allegations.
“The PIC has destroyed my unblemished and clean career record. They forced me to retire at the age of 40,” she said.