Business and Technology

Former acting treasurer Mandla Maleka takes Eskom to CCMA after being overlooked for the top job

Eskom‘s former acting treasurer, Mandla Maleka, who spent 8 months acting in the role, is heading to the CCMA after being overlooked for the job, which he says has been given to ‘a white man with less experience’.

Johannesburg – An Eskom employee is demanding to know why the wife of Trevor Manuel, Maria Ramos, was part of the interviewing panel to appoint the power utility’s group treasurer.

Mandla Maleka, who has been working at Eskom for 20 years, is also taking the company to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after he was overlooked for a top position which he acted in for eight months and the job was given to “a white man with less experience” by the interview panel which included Ramos.

Maleka is challenging the appointment of Richard Vaughan as the company group treasurer. Vaughan, a former Edcon group chief executive officer, was appointed on May 15.

Maleka said he wants to know how Ramos, who isn’t an Eskom employee or board member, was allowed to sit on the interviews and post questions to the candidates.

He is also asking why Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, who wasn’t even supposed to be part of the interviewing panel, didn’t recuse himself as one of the candidates was a former colleague at Sasol and Nampak and they know each other very well.

Mandla Maleka

“The process used to appoint Vaughan was unfair and discriminatory. Vaughan never disclosed he was a chief operating officer of a sinking ship, as Edcon went bust shortly after he was interviewed, and secondly he doesn’t have 10 years’ treasury related experience as required in the job advert but I have been working for Eskom treasury for more than 20 years,” he said.

“Richard should have declared during the interviews that Edcon, the company he was a chief financial officer of, was going under. He knew the financial status of Edcon and didn’t disclose it and that’s what seems unethical for an accountant charter holder. Secondly, he didn’t disclose he has never run corporate treasury before which is completely different from being a chief financial officer.”

Maleka says Eskom has so far failed to explain to him why Ramos was invited to be part of the panel in December.

“I was surprised when I walked into the interviewing room to find her sitting in there and she even asked me a couple of questions as part of the interviewing process but this woman isn’t even an Eskom employee or a board member.”

Eskom chief operating officer, Calib Cassim, who was supposed to be chairing the interviewing panel since the group treasury falls under him, also conceded to advocate Fana Nalane SC, who was appointed by the power utility to investigate Maleka’s grievance that he was “surprised when Maria Ramos was involved”.

After the first round of interviews, Eskom called for a second round and Cassim told Nalane that “he received an envelope from HR and there were two white males to be interviewed”. One of them was Vaughan and the other was De Ruyter’s former colleague at Sasol and Nampak.

Cassim confirmed that Ramos also sat on the second round of interviews as De Ruyter but stressed that the CEO didn’t score the candidates.

Cassim said the successful candidate, which is Vaughan, was chosen because “he had debt restructuring experience” and that he could “assist Eskom with debt restructuring”. But Vaughan’s “debt experience” couldn’t save Edcon from going under.

Advocate Nalane’s conclusion was that he “was not satisfied that Maleka was treated unfairly”.

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said Ramos was involved in the interviewing panel because of her “vast experience in… banking and treasury, from her years in the government and in banking”.

He conceded De Ruyter “sat on the panel, after declaring he knew the candidate, in accordance with Eskom HR policy requirements”.

In other news – This is just weird – Twitter wants to know why Jub Jub smelled the Vaseline on #Uyajola99

Fans of Uyajola 99 were confused when host Jub Jub took a jar of petroleum jelly he found at a cheater’s home and sniffed it before using it. Read more

Source: IOL