The State IT agency (SITA) has lost a labour dispute with one of its senior employees, reports the Sunday Independent.
This comes less than a month after the agency suspended four of its executives.
According to the newspaper, the SITA board's company secretary, Thandi Zide, took SITA to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) for unfair labour practice after she was suspended for gross misconduct earlier this year allegedly without sufficient reasons provided. Her contract would have ended next March states the report.
This week, the agency reportedly agreed to pay Zide several months' salary as part of a settlement. Neither Zide nor SITA spokesperson, Jeanny Morulane, was willing to give comment on the matter.
However, the Sunday Independent says it understands SITA was on the verge of withdrawing the charges against Zide and inviting her to return to work. Zide is supposedly said to have argued thst she had been humiliated and did not see fit to return.
Zide was shown the door soon after former CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola was axed. In May, Mosley-Lefatola's contract was terminated eight months before it was due to expire.
SITA declined to elaborate on the reasons for Mosley-Lefatola's departure, merely stating that after a review of the agency's strategic direction, the board and Mosley-Lefatola agreed to an amicable parting of ways to allow him to pursue other interests outside SITA.
SITA is also still keeping mum on the reasons behind the decision to suspend four of its executive members at the beginning of this month. COO Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, head of corporate services Diamond Mushwana, head of human capital management Tshidi Gumbi, and chief supply chain management officer Thenjiwe Mjoli were placed on precautionary suspension.
Morulane declined to comment, citing the confidential nature of the employer-employee relationship. "No external engagement on that relationship can be considered until the necessary formal processes have run their due course," she said.
Sithembiso Freeman Nomvalo was appointed CEO in May for a period of up to a year, while the agency seeks to fill the post on a longer-term basis.
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