Home affairs director-general Mavuso Msimang's straight-talking, no-nonsense approach to trouble-shooting has earned him the nickname Mr Fix-it, but also a long list of unhappy former employees.
He has weathered many allegations, including sexual harassment, which clouded the announcement of his appointment earlier in 2007 to his new post in arguably the most dysfunctional government department.
On October 15, Ursula Wagner decided to withdraw her R500 000 damages claim against Msimang. This left him angry at not having had his day in court to face his accuser.
"I feel like the Springboks would have felt had they reached the World Cup final, only to be told that the England team was not prepared to run onto the field for the last game," he said.
"I had a good chance of winning my case; in fact, my chances were stronger even than those given the Springboks, and yet I was denied that victory. And the victory I achieved has left me feeling hollow."
Wagner, a former employee at the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) during Msimang's tenure as chief executive, claimed in legal papers that Msimang had behaved in a sexually suggestive manner towards her.
Wagner said she was fired from Sita because she refused to accept his advances.
The Afrikaans press reported on the matter, and when Msimang was appointed director-general, journalists who did an Internet search on him found the first article that appeared was about his alleged sex-pest advances.
What upset Msimang about that was that his comment was never sought for the original article. But it wasn't the first time the media had treated him unfairly, he said.
He had to weather allegations that he misappropriated millions from the Umthombo Pride project in KwaZulu-Natal between 1993 and 1994.
As in Wagner's case, those claims also surfaced after employees had been dismissed, he said.
Msimang said such false allegations were painful - especially when they were highlighted in the media without his side being asked for.
It hurt to see himself labelled a sex pest when he and those around him knew that he would not do such a thing.
The media's desire to see the image of a "relatively high-profile person" tarnished was a tragedy.
"I suppose it's a good story between a David and a Goliath; it's the natural human emotion to sympathise with David," he said.
But he warned that cases in which the underdog was the guilty party did immeasurable damage to the media's image.
Furthermore, the saga had detracted from what was a serious problem.
"Sexual harassment in the workplace is rampant," he said.
But careless reporting, as in his incident, set the women's agenda for equality back.
"If sexual harassers win the cases, what does it do to the image of the women's agenda?" Msimang said.
He was a staunch supporter of women's rights - as any man with a wife and three daughters had to be, he said.
"No ways would I countenance any of my children or my wife being disadvantaged because they are women - and I know because they come across these things," Msimang said.
"So they don't need pretenders to mess up something that is already wrong."
Msimang also criticised women's groups that questioned his appointment for "behaving extremely badly"; they, like the media, had failed to seek an explanation from him.
He said that accepting the job was a "huge sacrifice" on his part without having the added stress of groups expressing their unhappiness with his appointment.
He did it because he felt that it was important for the country to "get things running well", he said.
Msimang believes the department will be turned around and that there is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is "a very long tunnel".
As of Sunday, more than 200 home affairs employees, including senior officials, have been suspended since Msimang was appointed to the position five months ago.
He said he did not enjoy dismissing people, but when the carrot did not work, the stick had to do the trick.
Msimang also said he would not be surprised if other allegations were levelled against him that were far worse than the sexual harassment claims.
"It's a dangerous job that I have to do because there are whole syndicates that are being stopped," he said.
But, he said, he would not let that prevent him from carrying out the work that needed to be done.
