The South African government has axed controversial Public Enterprises Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi, who accused Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan of acting irregularly in the rescue and sale of South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) and undervaluing its assets.
His dismissal follows an inquiry into his conduct by Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola (and mandated by President Cyril Ramaphosa), which found that Tlhakudi had breached his employment contract. It also came after the South African Constitutional Court refused an appeal by Thlakudi against a decision that upheld his suspension as lawful. Consequently, Thlakudi was handed a dismissal letter on June 2, according to a statement by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services.
Thlakudi was suspended in June 2022 after a whistleblower laid a complaint against him with the Public Service Commission for alleged unethical behaviour over a recruitment process in his department. However, the director-general claimed it was a plot to oust him because he disagreed with Gordhan's plan to sell 51% of SAA to the Takatso Consortium for ZAR51 rands (USD2.88) in exchange for a ZAR3 billion (USD157.5 million) cash injection in the first two years of operations.
The DPE stated that Thlakudi had been "party to every step in the process that evaluated the interests that were received by the DPE for SAA". "Additionally, he had authorised and provided oversight for the due diligence that resulted in the shortlisting of Takatso as the preferred SEP [strategic equity partner] in-line with specific criteria that he had formulated as part of the adjudication process," it said.
