Post Office cesspool
If the troubled organisation was to move on, decisive action of almost any sort was better than the prolonged and painful paralysis that has resulted from Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri’s characteristic dithering.
However, poking a stick down a toilet merely stirs up the foul contents; it does not identify the cause of the obstruction or ensure that the same problem will not reoccur. No amount of perfumed spray will get rid of the cloying stink. And smell this debacle does, to high heaven.
By removing Mampeule from the board, Matsepe-Casaburri opened the way for it to institute formal disciplinary proceedings against him. Yesterday the board jumped the gun and fired him forthwith, increasing the likelihood that the entire process will end up before the civil courts and ensuring that the Post Office will be knee-deep in trouble for years to come.
Judging from the accusations that have been thrown around so far, there is plenty of dirt just waiting to bubble to the surface in such a forum. Mampeule has little to lose, and much to gain, by dragging the Post Office, its individual board members and the minister through the muck, if only to squeeze a substantial settlement out of them.
It is impossible, after so much muck has flowed under the bridge, for any outside observer of the Post Office soap opera to make an informed judgment on whether Mampeule is victim or villain; corruption-busting hero being punished for exposing his predecessor’s sins and fellow board members’ corporate governance lapses, or a loose cannon who lied to the board, cut corners and failed to fulfil his fiduciary duties.
What is clear is that many of the difficulties could have been avoided had Matsepe-Casaburri handled things differently.
Why were Mampeule’s accusations against former CEO Maanda Manyatshe not investigated thoroughly at the time, rather than being left to fester to the point where Manyatshe felt compelled to resign from his new job at MTN to work on clearing his name? That has left the Post Office with a R125m lawsuit hanging over its head.
The minister’s handling of Mampuele’s suspension — apparently for acting without the board’s approval in going after Manyatshe, among other issues — also left much to be desired.
It was all very well commissioning a forensic report from auditors SizweNtsaluba, but did she really believe she could act against Mampuele on the basis of its contents without these being revealed? Now she finds herself in a situation where a court has forced her to release to Mampuele a report that, apart from criticising his actions, also reportedly compromises members of the Post Office board.
The longer Matsepe-Casaburri resists exposing the saga to sunlight, the more pressure will build in the pipes, the more reputations will be tarnished, and the further the Post Office will sink into the mire.
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