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

Armscor asks CEO Thomo to resign

The board of Armscor has asked CEO Sipho Thomo to resign, but a stand-off is looming as he refuses to go. Board chairperson Popo Molefe told Parliament's portfolio committee on defence on Wednesday that he asked Thomo last week to quit, and gave him three days to mull the matter. Briefing the committee while Thomo was asked to leave the room, he said Armscor had come to the conclusion that "he's taking all of us down" and that the state arms-procurement utility's woes would only be resolved if he left. "We have asked him to resign ... He should have come back to me on Saturday. By Monday he has not done so," Molefe said. "We now have to look at which options are open to us."

Thomo told reporters that he had no plans to resign. "I'm not planning to resign. I have no reason to resign," he said. This comes amid the ongoing battle between the Eskom board and CEO Jacob Maroga, which prompted board chair Bobby Godsell to quit on Monday.

Godsell said he had no choice because the board could not secure the government's support for its acceptance of Maroga's earlier resignation. Molefe said the board did not need the state's backing to dismiss Thomo.

Opposition MPs welcomed the board's decision to ask Thomo to step down but asked why it had taken them so long. They suggested that it was his handling of information about the cost of the country's now cancelled deal to buy Airbus A400M heavy-lift planes that finally prompted the board to act despite long-standing tension with Thomo.

Thomo admitted to shocked MPs last month that the cost had rocketed from an already steep R17-billion in 2006 to an "estimated" R47-billion. Cabinet scrapped the deal last week. "That was very badly handled. We think it was the last straw that broke the camel's back," an MP told the South African Press Association.

Source: Mail & Guardian