The CEO of the Estate Agency Affairs Board's court case has nothing to do with the Wendy Machanik case, EAAB chairman Thami Bolani said on Friday.
He was addressing a select committee on trade in Parliament.
He said lawyers who represented the board during the Machanik case were representing the board in the case of CEO Nomonde Mapetla.
Mapetla was suspended, then fired on February 27 with media reports suggesting it may be linked to whistle-blowing against Machanik.
An EAAB investigation into estate agency Wendy Machanik Properties led to the closure of her agency and criminal charges against Machanik and chief financial officer, Bruce Bernstein.
They allegedly made irregular transfers totalling R28 million from Wendy Machanik Property Holdings, to a fictitious account.
Bolani said if the two cases were related it would be a conflict of interest and that this was not the case.
“This has got nothing to do with the Machanik issue.
“It's a purely labour matter. It's got nothing to do with politics.”
Bolani said he was quite disturbed that the matter had attracted front page news for two weeks.
“We are quite concerned it has been politicised so much.”
Acting director general of the Dept of Trade and Industry, Lionel October, said the department was not investigating the employment dispute in the matter of the CEO.
“The dispute we are investigating is to see that there was no abuse of power from the side of the board when they made their decision.”
He said government does not make determinations on unfair dismissal disputes. - Sapa