Peters moves to axe Acsa board members and ‘shield CEO’ from suspension

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has reportedly issued notices of intent to dismiss four Airports Company SA (Acsa) board members in a move seen by critics as an effort to protect the state-owned company’s CEO, Bongani Maseko, from being suspended and disciplined for breaching supply chain rules.

The Business Day reported on Monday that the notices were issued late on Friday, with a shareholder meeting slated to take place next Monday.

According to sources the business daily spoke to, Peters apparently caught the board off guard, as some of the suspended members were due to meet with her to discuss a board decision to suspend Maseko with immediate effect and to start a disciplinary process against him, but the board resolution was still to be ratified.

The state airport management company is said to be in crisis with the latest development coming after its board held a series of meetings to discuss prolonging the suspensions of senior executives and continuing with the disciplinary action against them.

The executives have been implicated in flouting of the parastatal’s supply chain rules.

Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu has previously found that Acsa’s accounting authority failed to take effective steps to prevent irregular expenditure and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which is said to be the root cause of the quarrels at the company.

Senior managers reportedly have argued that Acsa was inconsistent in applying its own rules, as a reason for no action being taken against Maseko, even though he is implicated in flouting Acsa’s supply chain rules.

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Although concerns have been raised that the CEO’s continued presence at the parastatal would obstruct an ongoing internal forensic investigation and discourage witnesses from coming forward and giving evidence.

Department of Transport spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi told Business Day Peters’ meeting with the board will consider its evaluation performance report.

“It is so unfortunate that the issue you are raising relating to the CEO does not even form the subject matter of the agenda [of the shareholder meeting]. It may be of interest to note that, in this meeting, the minister will consider the board evaluation performance report commissioned by the board itself,” he said.

Meanwhile, Acsa said it was unaware of Maseko’s possible suspension by the board and that he had not received any notice of intent to suspend him.