Suspended SA Post Office acting CEO Lindiwe Kwele, who took over after Mark Barnes left the post, is preparing to return to work after an arbitration process found that her suspension was procedurally unfair.
Kwele was suspended in December just four months into the role, after the board received a whistle-blower’s report containing allegations that included conflicts of interest and irregular extensions of contracts. She had been challenging her suspension in an arbitration process.
Kwele received her arbitral award last week, which found that she was suspended for a fair reason but that the Post Office board had “fired the gun on [her] prematurely” when it announced her suspension before she was given a chance to provide reasons why this should not happen. This was despite an undertaking by the board that it would give her 48 hours to provide the reasons.
Kwele’s lawyer Eric Mabuza said his client is preparing to go back to work, adding, “She will be going back to work soon to serve the people of SA.”
The Post Office board, however, said on Tuesday that it would continue with the internal disciplinary processes against Kwele, while also considering challenging the cost award in the arbitration matter.
In the arbitration award, it was ordered that the Post Office pay Kwele two months of her salary as acting CEO as compensation for the procedurally unfair suspension. It was also ordered to pay 50% of all Kwele’s costs of the arbitration, including the cost of her legal representation.
The Post Office is onto its third acting CEO in eight months since Barnes resigned a year ago after clashing with the board and the government over their decision to hive off Postbank, the financial services arm of the Post Office, with ambitions to become a fully fledged bank.
Ivumile Nongogo replaced Kwele as acting CEO when she was suspended in December, but he stepped down after the Post Office board decided to institute disciplinary charges against him for concluding an agreement with the SA Social Security Agency to distribute the temporary Covid-19 R350 relief grant, without consulting the board.
Business Day previously reported that communications and digital technologies minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams would initially not accept Nongogo’s resignation nor the Post OfficeSapo board’s recommendation for who should take his place.
Reneilwe Langa, seconded from the department of communications and digital technologies, has since been appointed acting CEO.
Ndabeni-Abrahams has been on a collision course with some board members. She is now facing a court challenge to the demotion of board chair Colleen Makhubele who is accusing the minister of having ulterior motives in her decision to remove her.
Makhubele remains a member of the Post Office board.
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