CCMA official axed over R100m

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has axed a senior official responsible for the R100 million lease at the centre of the legal row between the commission and a winning company. The commission told MPs on Wednesday the senior official would formally leave the CCMA at the end of the month following disciplinary action against him. Senior officials of the CCMA were briefing the portfolio committee on labour on their annual performance plan for 2015/16 when MPs started probing the R100m lease for their Cape Town headquarters. Head of legal services at the CCMA, Cameron Morajane, told the committee they went to the Western Cape High Court late last year to scrap the R100m lease after they picked up irregularities in the awarding of the tender.

Asked by MPs on the nature of the court application, Morajane said the matter was still to be argued in court. “There is one part where there is an application by the CCMA to set aside the lease. That is the main action costing us R300 000. “We had hoped there would be a date now, but there is no date. That matter is limited to that one matter, that that lease be set aside because there is a violation of the CCMA prescripts,” said Morajane. But the matter has been dragging in court since late last year with no indication on the date for the hearing. He said the R300 000 they have so far spent on the case did not relate to the heart of the case, but merely exchanges of information and documents between the CCMA and the winning company.

Morajane said a senior official implicated in wrongdoing was taken through a disciplinary process. CCMA head Nerine Kahn said the internal investigation into the tender was now over and the senior official would leave at month-end. She said the senior official was not guilty of fraud, but of violating supply-chain management procedures in the awarding of the tender. When asked by chairperson of the committee Lumka Yengeni what agreement was reached between the CCMA and the employee concerned, Kahn said the individual was given a disciplinary hearing. He said it was found that there was deliberate flouting of the tender procedures. “We brought an application to the high court to set aside that lease because it was awarded incorrectly,” said Kahn. But members of the committee said they wanted more information on the matter.

Yengeni said the CCMA would have to come back to Parliament to give a detailed briefing to the committee. She said the commission cannot hide behind the sub judice principle on this matter, and the committee would deal with the case in detail once it receives more information. Yengeni was backed by fellow ANC MPs Fezeka Loliwe and Sharome van Schalkwyk, who said this would help clear a lot of air. Loliwe said they would need more time with the CCMA to get to the nuts and blots of the lease. DA MP Ian Ollis described the actions of the official in question as cheating the state. He said the state cannot afford to bear such huge costs because of an individual.