Axed Armscor CEO challenges his dismissal

Axed Armscor CEO Sipho Thomo is challenging his dismissal, the chairperson of Parliament's portfolio committee on defence said on Tuesday. Mnyamezeli Booi announced to MPs that a planned briefing by Armscor chairperson Popo Molefe on the reasons for firing Thomo had been cancelled because he was challenging the board's decision to relieve him of his duties on January 7.

Molefe was to have delivered a report from the board on Thomo's disciplinary hearing, setting out the "accusations and charges" against him, Booi said. "The CEO now is not happy, he wants to challenge that report. Thomo is going to take up the issue and go to court or appeal." He said it was not clear whether Thomo was appealing the outcome of the disciplinary hearing or had filed a law suit. "I didn't go into the detail, it was something about appealing," he said.

Neither Thomo nor Armscor could immediately be reached for clarification. DA defence spokesperson David Maynier quipped that Thomo "is doing a Maroga", a reference to the R85-million lawsuit filed by the fired CEO of Eskom. Thomo was fired after ignoring repeated calls by the Armscor board to step down, ending a stormy decade at the helm of the state's arms-procurement entity.

In a letter to Booi, Molefe said the board had pressed Thomo to settle their dispute amicably, right up to his disciplinary hearing in December, but he refused. "Before the hearing the board gave Mr Thomo several opportunities to settle amicably. In all instances he showed no keenness, insisting persistently that there was nothing wrong with his conduct and claimed that he was innocent."

Thomo survived a misconduct inquiry a few years ago but was finally sacked in the wake of his awkward disclosure to Parliament last year that the cost of South Africa's contract to buy eight Airbus A400M heavy-lift planes had sky-rocketed to an "estimated" R47-billion. The government subsequently cancelled the deal. Business Day on Tuesday reported that in addition to other charges put to Thomo at this disciplinary hearing, Molefe accused him of bypassing the board on renegotiating an industrial participation deal with European aircraft manufacturer Augusta Westland.

Opposition parties had hoped Molefe's appearance before the committee would cast light on the financial terms accompanying the termination of Thomo's contract. His pay package included a restraint of trade agreement worth one year's salary, or R1,45-million, of which 60% was paid last year. The rest was to be paid upon termination of his contract. Opposition MPs have suggested that Thomo should not be made the sole scapegoat for problems at Armscor, but Molefe told the defence committee last year that it could not resolve its woes unless he went. He said the board had come to the conclusion that "he's taking all of us down".

Source: Mail & Guardian