Parliament has rebuffed Gungubele’s decision to ignore a high court ruling ordering the reappointment of the board of Sita, which was fired by the minister in July last year. Parliament said its legal team has found that the minister’s application to appeal the decision does not set the court’s ruling aside, as he had expected.
The board the high court ordered be reinstated is the one accountable to parliament regarding Sita’s affairs The minister fired members of the Sita board, causing others subsequently to resign, over a spat about then incoming CEO Bongani Andy Mabaso’s salary. According to Gungubele, the board “unilaterally” decided to raise the salary offered to Mabaso – whoas group chief technology officer of JSE-listed Altron – by R1-million without consulting him. This consultation, he said, is required under Sita’s memorandum of incorporation.
In December last year, Gungubele appointed a ministerial task team to look into the causes of the procurement backlog at Sita, with former advisor to the minister of small business development, Simphiwe Dzengwa, as its chair.