Sunday Times

Sacked Gupta-link DG hangs on for a better exit deal

Pravin doesn’t trust him, but top civil servant asks: ‘What have I done wrong?’

- By POLOKO TAU

● Public enterprise­s minister Pravin Gordhan offered Gupta-linked director-general Richard Seleke R5m to step down because he did not trust him and could not work with him.

But the payout offer was later thwarted by public service and administra­tion minister Ayanda Dlodlo, who said that, according to her calculatio­ns, Seleke could be paid only R3.4m.

Despite accepting the lower offer at first, Seleke remains in his job and has threatened to go to the Labour Court unless conditions attached to his settlement offer were changed.

“I did not choose to leave … Minister Gordhan told me he does not want to work with me. Why say now I can’t work for government until 2020?” Seleke said. “What have I done wrong?”

Seleke was implicated in the leaked Gupta e-mails last year.

In June 2017, the Sunday Times reported that six months before Seleke was appointed director-general in 2015, joining from the Free State provincial government, his CV was e-mailed to Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane.

The following month, lobby group the Organisati­on Undoing Tax Abuse laid complaints of fraud, extortion, corruption and high treason against Seleke. This came after the e-mails indicated that he had sent Ashu Chawla, CEO of the Guptas’ Sahara Computers, a spreadshee­t in 2015 showing how the Guptas would get hundreds of millions of US dollars for brokering Transnet’s locomotive deal with China South Railways.

Seleke, who has been on extended leave since March, denied the allegation­s. He was a victim of a “well-orchestrat­ed smear campaign”, he said.

“Minister Gordhan said to me he did not want to work with me and the media seems to indicate this is because of state capture allegation­s. I was never charged … the whole thing is just a feeling like when someone is looking at you and feels like they don’t like you and then say: ‘Chief, you must leave.’”

The situation is seen as an indication that Gordhan is cracking down on public servants linked to the Guptas.

The Sunday Times understand that Seleke and Gordhan met in March to discuss and conclude a “mutual separation process” whereby Seleke had to explore alternativ­e career options in the department.

Seleke and Gordhan met, in the presence of the minister’s adviser, on March 22, according to a letter seen by the Sunday Times.

Seleke’s May 25 letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa said Gordhan had made it clear that he wanted him out.

He said in the letter that Gordhan had said in a meeting in April that “he does not trust me as a result of allegation­s circulatin­g around that I may have had a relationsh­ip with the beleaguere­d Gupta family” and that “he does not have any evidence of my involvemen­t, but that his mistrust is guided by the allegation­s in various media platforms, and he will have to do investigat­ions on the allegation­s”.

In another letter to the Presidency, dated July 2, Seleke said he had accepted “as a gesture of peace and amicable closure of this continuous brutal and unfair treatment that I have received” a settlement offer of R5m made by Gordhan as a payout for the remainder of his contract, due to end in November 2020.

This was overturned by Dlodlo in June. She came up with the sum of R3.4m.

Seleke said although this was “actually half of what is due to me, I indicated I was going to accept it”. He was, however, not happy that once he signed on the dotted line, he automatica­lly agreed to not work for the government again until 2020.

Seleke indicated in a letter to the Presidency that he was ready to take Dlodlo’s offer “with the condition that this settlement should not impose any cooling-off period, in whatever form, on me to work for the public service/government at any point”.

He said he was ready to seek legal recourse on the matter.

“I have avoided courts but if we don’t agree, the matter will have to be arbitrated by an independen­t body and in this case it will be the Labour Court.”

Presidenti­al spokespers­on Khusela Diko failed to respond to detailed questions sent to her on Friday. Yesterday she said: “The Presidency has noted correspond­ence from DG Seleke and will respond to it in due time in the appropriat­e forums.”

Public enterprise­s spokespers­on Adrian Lackay referred questions about Seleke to the department of public service and administra­tion, whose spokespers­on, Mava Scott, said Seleke had left public enterprise­s as of August 1.

Scott said the department was “not in a position to disclose the terms of the settlement agreement between [Seleke] and the department as that would be in breach of the settlement agreement”.

On Friday, Scott retracted her comments, saying Seleke had “declined” the offer.

 ??  ?? Pravin Gordhan, above, and Richard Seleke
Pravin Gordhan, above, and Richard Seleke
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