Donwald Pressly
Business Against Crime (BAC), the organisation that fights crime both in the workplace and outside, recently fired its Western Cape chief executive, Annelie Rabie, who now heads the DA caucus in the Prince Albert municipality.
Rabie, who was elected a proportional councillor in the Karoo hamlet in May, was placed on suspension in March and officially left the job as chief executive in June, but this was hushed up. She was accused of misusing her BAC credit card and inflating her salary, including giving herself an R8 000 a month car allowance, which was not approved by management. It is understood that the damages amounted to R400 000.
She put in her resignation in April, before the municipal election, when she said she had decided “to go into politics” and run for mayor of the municipality. However, the BAC Western Cape board headed by Melvyn Joshua refused to accept her resignation as they said she needed to face disciplinary procedures.
In the meantime, she won her seat on the Prince Albert municipal council where she and three DA councillors sit on the opposition benches.
The disciplinary process was carried out by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr attorney Gavin Stansfield, who confirmed that Rabie was fired after she was found guilty of misconduct.
Stansfield would not release the document detailing the charges or the findings, saying he would have to get permission to do so from Joshua, as well as from Rabie. A request for permission from Joshua and Rabie was not forthcoming.
However, Joshua did say that Rabie had indeed been fired. “She was found guilty and her services were terminated with immediate effect.”
When it was pointed out that she had resigned in April, Joshua confirmed this, but said the BAC had chosen to go the disciplinary route and had not accepted the resignation. She therefore remained suspended in May and on June 17 she was fired, Joshua reported.
He did not say whether she would be required to repay the amounts BAC believed she owed the company. A source said that BAC was considering criminal charges against Rabie. “Once the damages are above R300 000, it must become a criminal case.”
When asked why BAC had not confirmed the suspension at the time Business Report first made queries about the disciplinary hearing in April, Joshua said: “We could not divulge the process.”
BAC claimed to have released a statement confirming her dismissal when the hearing had been completed, but it went unreported.
Yesterday the new BAC Western Cape chief executive Andrew Anthony said he would have to consult with Joshua over releasing the details of the internal hearing. He had by last night not responded to the request.
DA spokesman Gavin Davies said the party would prefer not to comment until Rabie had “given her side of the story”. He pledged to contact her to ask her to take queries from Business Report. She did respond and said she would take questions by e-mail. But she had not responded to questions at the time of going to press. page 16