The board of the .ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) has confirmed that Michael Molehe Wesi no longer serves as the organisation’s chief executive officer, effective 8 June.
This, after Wesi was suspended in October 2025, amid allegations of misconduct and governance failures.
The CEO was placed on precautionary suspension, following a report’s findings into alleged credit card transgressions against him.
According to the ZADNA board, the CEO’s termination of employment follows the conclusion of a disciplinary process.
The board adds that to ensure continuity of the organisation’s operations, it has implemented “appropriate” governance and leadership arrangements.
For continuity, it has appointed advocate Lerato Seema as acting CEO, while the process of appointing a permanent CEO has commenced, in accordance with applicable governance requirements.
“The board remains committed to the principles of good corporate governance, transparency, and accountability, and to ensuring ZADNA continues to deliver on its statutory mandate without disruption. Any material developments regarding the appointment of a permanent chief executive officer will be communicated through the appropriate channels,” it says.
ZADNA is an entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies that manages and regulates the .za namespace, including domains like co.za, net.za, org.za and web.za.
Wesi joined ZADNA as its CEO in August 2020, taking over from Peter Madavhu, who served as acting CEO from January 2019 to July 2020.
Madavhu was temporarily appointed after the organisation’s former CEO Vika Mpisane was suspended, following a disciplinary hearing into an undisclosed matter, initiated in January 2019. Mpisane was subsequently fired in July 2019.
In February, ITWeb reported on the investigation into alleged misconduct by Wesi. The probe was commissioned amid allegations of unethical leadership through the introduction of non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements against staff, contravention of the travel and subsistence policy, as well as credit card expenditures.
As per the investigation report, no formal policy breaches were identified.
However, it identified concerning policy gaps, weak oversight and poor cost discipline within the entity that led to excessive use of company resources.
The report identified significant use of the ZADNA credit card during the 2024/2025 financial year, with comparison of monthly use to the previous 2023/2024 financial year.
Some of the spend is attributed to “expensive” restaurants, entertainment, alcohol, overseas travel and luxury vehicle rentals.
While some categories of expenditure were allowed in terms of credit card usage, the report noted: “The expensive nature of certain restaurants frequented could have been avoided had the CEO diligently considered the declined cash position of ZADNA.”
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