Mantashe foundation fires COO over ‘questionable’ payments from Bidvest subsidiary

The Gwede Mantashe Foundation on Tuesday said it had fired its chief operating officer (COO) Caswell Mokoena after reports emerged that in October 2016, he allegedly wrote a letter using the letterheads of the foundation to acknowledge receipt of a R935,000 payment made to a company he used to be a director of.

The donation was reportedly received by Ntlokholo Investments and it was from electrical wholesaler Voltex, a subsidiary of the Bidvest Group. Mokoena resigned from Ntlokholo in May 2017.

The details about the payment were revealed in the Labour Court in Braamfontein by Nicolaos Riga, a former internal auditor at Voltex. Riga also claimed that Voltex paid Ntlokholo more than R6 million in six “questionable” payments.

In a statement, the Gwede Mantashe Foundation said it had decided to relieve Mokoena off his duties to give him time to deal with this matter.

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The organisation also denied receiving “any form of direct or indirect payments from companies mentioned in the reports”.

“Therefore, where allegations of irregular conduct or payments being made to an individual or entity who may happen to be associated with the foundation, should be laid at the door of that person and/or entity,” the statement read.

“The foundation is against any individual associated with it who may abuse its official brand, any of its material, and the position they hold in it, to act in a manner that harms its image and standing and thereby undermine its objective.”

The foundation also said it was “erroneous” for Mokoena to have used the foundation’s letterheads in the manner that he did.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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