Ex-CEO sues for R274m

2007-11-13 14:00

Cape Town - Former SA post office CEO Maanda Manyatshe has lodged a more than R200m defamation law suit against his former employer, MPs heard on Tuesday.

Briefing the national assembly's communication committee, SA post office chairperson Vuyo Mahlati said Manyatshe was demanding R274m from the institution.

"Indeed, Manyatshe has served the post office with summons... for R274m.

"We will deal with the case fairly and appropriately," she said, declining to reveal more "as the matter has still to go to court".

Manyatshe, who left the post office under a cloud more than two years ago, was later forced to resign from his MTN MD position after the post office laid criminal charges against him for tender fraud.

Dismissed

The man who spearheaded the campaign to get criminal charges laid against Manyatshe, then CEO Khutso Mampeule, was himself later dismissed by communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburi.

Mahlati said Mampeule, who initially had sought reinstatement, was now also demanding compensation from the post office following his dismissal.

The post office made it clear to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) that it had nothing to do with Mampeule's dismissal as the process to terminate his contract was initiated by Matsepe-Casaburi

"He is no longer asking to be brought back, his issue is around compensation," Manyitshe said, without revealing the amount of money Mampeule was asking for.

MPs were worried the post office would spend almost its entire R350m annual government subsidy on compensation costs should the two former CEOs' legal bids succeed.

"It now seems as if the entire government subsidy will be used to compensate these former CEOs," African National Congress MP Khotso Khumalo said.

- SAPA