Neotel says non-executive director Kennedy Memani will provide interim executive oversight while CEO Sunil Joshi is on "special leave" pending an investigation into corruption allegations.
A Neotel spokesperson says Memani will act as the "director in charge on behalf of the board" while Joshi and CFO Steven Whiley are absent from the company.
Joshi and Whiley were placed on "special leave" earlier this week pending an investigation into alleged bribery and corruption in connection with a Transnet deal worth R1.8 billion. This after the Mail & Guardian reported the two were involved in payments worth tens of millions of rands to the letterbox company Homix to clinch the lucrative Transnet deal.
"The board has appointed a sub-committee to continue an investigation into the non-compliance, and to ensure the strengthening of the company's policies, procedures, internal controls and governance," says Neotel.
Memani is chairman of Neotel's BEE partner, Nexus Connexion, as well as chairman of the Eskom Pension Fund. Neotel says Memani has "extensive experience working with government ministries and on issues of restructuring, including privatisation and corporatisation."
In the past, Memani has represented the ministry of public enterprises in the negotiations for the successful partial privatisation of Telkom. He was also involved in preparing the master plan for the privatisation of Transnet and advised on the privatisation of Airports Company of South Africa.
Memani also created and managed a benchmarking process comparing RSA performance and processes for privatisation with worldwide best practice.
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