Johannesburg - Pikitup MD Amanda Nair has been placed on special leave pending an investigation into a barrage of allegations against her by SA Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU.)
She is also facing investigations of maladministration, corruption and violating Pikitup’s supply-chain management processes.
Nair’s suspension follows months of discontentment, with workers having even embarked on an illegal strike action earlier this year demanding that Nair be removed because she is corrupt.
They also alleged that she was practising nepotism in hiring staff.
Last year, it emerged that Nair secured a salary of nearly R10 000 a month for a relative doing an internship at the City of Joburg, while other interns are paid R3 000 a month.
In January 2013, Nair wrote to Jonathan Thekiso in the human resources department, instructing him to appoint Kelvin Ngwenya as an intern.
The Star has seen a copy of the letter.
Several sources alleged that Ngwenya was the son of Nair’s domestic worker.
Nair is not new to controversy.
In 2013 The Star broke a story about how she had awarded a R26m tender to Aqua Transport Plant Hire, a firm implicated in a forensic investigation for fraud and corruption.
This was after Pikitup had forked out close to R6 million for Ernst & Young to conduct an investigation into several companies providing services to it.
The investigation recommended that Aqua should be charged criminally for fraud because of alleged irregular activities, including suspected tender collusion and should also be made to pay back money it had overcharged Pikitup.
Despite the damning report a three-year Yellow Plant tender worth R263m was awarded to Aqua in March 2013.
In August 2013 it emerged that Nair had spent close to R200 000 of ratepayers’ money on legal fees to prevent The Star from revealing how she controversially awarded a tender to a company implicated in alleged fraud.
Pikitup then interdicted both The Star and the Sunday Times, demanding the return of the Ernst & Young draft report implicating senior officials - including former managing director Zami Nkosi and several companies providing services to Pikitup.
Nair had already spent R228 000 in an attempt to defend herself against allegations of misuse of public funds and the awarding of the multimillion-rand tender to Aqua.
She took out full-page adverts in four daily newspapers, in a bid to defending herself for granting Aqua the tender despite being advised not to do so by the entity’s bid adjudication committee.
A year later Nair was suspended pending the investigation into the allegations.
The former board of Pikitup took the decision to suspend her after the National Treasury made damning findings in the awarding of the contract to Aqua.
In addition, the treasury found that the tender was irregular and should be set aside.
However, she was reinstated in February 2015 after she was cleared of all the allegations of awarding a tender irregularly.
But even after her reinstatement, Nair stumbled from one controversy to another.
Just a few months after she was reinstated, Nair spent several hours in a holding cell at the Hillbrow police station after she was arrested for alleged theft of the company’s official cellphones, which were irregularly issued to her and her children.
The police pounced on Nair while she was conducting a road show at Pikitup’s Southdale depot.
Nair was arrested along with Donovan Denyssen, who was working in the IT department when he allegedly gave the cellphones to Nair and a close relative without following the proper procedures.
The charges against Nair and Denyssen were finally withdrawn in court a few months later after Pikitup officials wrote affidavits saying the cellphones no longer had value, so charges should be dropped.
At the time Pikitup spokesman Jacky Mashapu said the board had established the facts on this matter internally and was satisfied there was “no basis to the allegations of theft”.
SAMWU demanded that these charges should be reinstated against Nair saying they had new evidence.
The Star