Nenegate whistle-blower goes to CCMA
• Former Trillian employee seeks compensation after quitting well-paid job
The whistle-blower whose affidavit to former public protector Thuli Madonsela detailed how Trillian Capital Partners knew about Nhlanhla Nene’s firing two months before it happened, is taking her former employer to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) demanding compensation.
The case is due to be heard on Monday, when the former high-ranking Trillian employee, who on Sunday asked to remain anonymous, will argue for compensation after she left her well-paid job, saying it was untenable to remain at the advisory firm.
A CCMA case referral form was hand-delivered to Trillian’s Melrose offices in July 2016 and the original complaint was filed at the CCMA the same month.
The dispute between the employee and employer arose after “the employer made the working conditions untenable for me to continue with employment [after] … restructuring … without [consulting]”, according to information contained in the CCMA referral form.
The result required by the complainant, as stated in the CCMA form, is compensation.
When contacted by Business Day on Sunday, she said: “No comment, I don’t want to talk to the media.
“I am pursuing my rights as provided to me by the constitution as an ordinary citizen. I am still trying to find a job considering the nature of the statement that Trillian put out last year, calling me a fraud.” She then hung up. Trillian said in a statement released in October 2016 that “fraud-related criminal charges are in the process of being laid” against the former employee.
The company denied any links to the Guptas in the October statement despite Salim Essa, a known Gupta associate, owning a 60% stake in it through a holding company.
Trillian nonexecutive chairman Tokyo Sexwale roped in advocate Geoff Budlender SC in 2016 to investigate the allegation that the company knew about Nene’s firing two months before President Jacob Zuma axed the former finance minister.
The scope of Budlender’s investigation extends to establishing if there are links between Trillian and the Guptas.
In a written response, Trillian CEO Eric Wood said on Sunday the case would be heard by the CCMA on Monday, and that both the company and the complainant would be represented by senior counsel.
Wood denied that the company had made the complainant’s continued stay at the company untenable, saying: “The employee was ... senior and treated as such.”
Wood asked that questions on Budlender’s investigation be directed to the senior counsel. He said that Trillian had “instituted a criminal case against the employee and others involved in the same or similar crimes”.