The former CEO of the Joburg Road Agency (JRA) is set to lock horns with the agency’s board of directors after filing an urgent court application challenging his dismissal and asking the court to stop the filling (of) the position of CEO as he believes a board member doctored the fake CV to get rid of him.
Filed in the Johannesburg Labour Court yesterday on Monday, Mahanuke, who was appointed on August 1, 2022, before he was dismissed on June 9 this year by the board – argued that among other things leading to the termination of his contract, some board members subjected him to an interference with his duties, but he resisted which led to him being targeted.
In his application, he alleged that his suspension was unlawful and regulations and a disciplinary procedure were not followed.
“On or around the week of the 15th November 2022, news broke out in the media about me having been appointed by the first respondent (JRA board of directors) using fake qualifications. The news was based on a CV that was deliberately leaked into the media about my qualifications being fake.
“This CV was doctored by someone within the board before it was leaked to the media and I believe that it is no coincidence that the doctoring of my CV and the leaking of it into the media had to do with my resistance to the interference in my operational duties by some members of the previous board of the first respondent,” Mahanuke stated in his court application.
He added that the journalists who wrote the stories about him did so without affording him a chance to respond before publishing which made the story to be one-sided.
“I Wish to state that it is not uncommon these days for state-owned entities to treat the accounting officers in this fashion when they discover that the accounting officer is independent-minded and does not want to be involved in nefarious actions.
“The board of the JRA immediately placed me on special leave to institute an investigation into the allegations in the media. The JRA appointed an independent investigation to investigate and authenticate my qualifications. The investigation was concluded and a decision was made to prefer disciplinary charges against me, as a result I was served with a charge sheet which stated that I was charged for gross misrepresentation of my qualifications.”
In the court application, Mahanuke stated that his lawyers requested the postponement of the hearing to June 5, but on or around May 23 he received a letter by email which the chairperson of the JRA signed titled “Cancellation of CEO disciplinary hearing and the way forward.”
In the letter, the chair of the board Charles Celliers expressed that the disciplinary process had cost the agency a lot of money and therefore requested that Mahanuke provide reasons why he should not be dismissed, to which Mahanuke made a submission appealing not to be fired, but he was not spared.
“The communications received from the chairman of the board up to the outcome of the appeal confirm that the chairman of the board was performing all the roles at once being the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing, the prosecutor, the appeal tribunal, and the appeal judge. The tone of his communique also reveals how he took this matter personally which means he was emotionally invested in the matter and lacked objective independence,” said Mahanuke.
Approached for comment, Celliers said he was not the spokesperson for the JRA, but indicated that the court application was being opposed.
“As the matter is before the court, I think it may be best to reserve comment,” he stated.
In the previous reports, Cilliers said Mahanuke failed to provide any counter-evidence to the evidence of fraud detected in his CV, which was provided to the JRA during his recruitment process, forcing the board to immediately terminate his employment with the JRA.