Question NW954 to the Minister of Public Enterprises
18 June 2018 - NW954
Van Dyk, Ms V to ask the Minister of Public Enterprises
(1) Whether a certain chief executive officer, namely Mr Lemogang Pitsoe, Alexkor SOC Limited was a paid-for guest at the (a) Gupta Sun City wedding and/or (b) wedding of Varun Gupta in Jaipur, India; (2) (a) what was the process by which the specified person was appointed as chief executive officer, (b) on what date was the post advertised, (c) what is the name of each (i) candidate who (aa) applied, (bb) was shortlisted and (cc) interviewed and (ii) member who was on the selection panel and (d) what marine mining credentials does the person have; and (3) whether the person disclosed the relationship with a certain company’s contract, namely JIC Mining Company with Hernic Ferrochrome; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
The response is based on information received from Alexkor SOC Limited.
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(1) |
(a) |
The response to the PQ that I have received from the CEO of Alexkor, Mr Lemogang Pitso, is that he attended the said weddings while he was in the employ of Hernic Ferrochrome (Pty) Ltd. Mr Pitsoe was representing Mr Johan Swanepoel, who is the CEO of Hernic, who could not attend due to unforeseen circumstances. |
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(b) |
As per 1(a) above.
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(2) |
(a) |
The position was advertised in the Sunday Times on 26 February 2017. A panel was established comprising of board members to interview the short listed candidates. The preferred candidates were then put through a set of psychometric tests. This was done in line with Alexkor’s recruitment and selection policy. |
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(b) |
26 February 2017 |
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(c) |
(i) |
(aa) |
The names of the candidates who applied for the position is in the possession of the Department and the members are welcome to request sight of said list. The challenge in publicly disclosing the names is that application for these level positions is done on a confidential basis, and disclose may negatively affect the current employment relationship of the applicants. Besides, the disclosure cannot be done without the candidates giving the Department consent to disclose their names. |
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(bb) |
Same as (2)(c)(aa) above. |
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(cc) |
Same as (2)(c)(aa) above. |
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(ii) |
(bb) |
Ms H Matseke |
(Chairperson of the Board of Directors) |
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(cc) |
Mr T Matona |
(Member of the Board of Directors) |
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(dd) |
Ms B Makwetla |
(Member of the Board of Directors) |
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(ee) |
Mr S Danana |
(Member of the Board of Directors) |
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(ff) |
Dr R Paul |
(Advisor to the Board of Directors) |
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(ff) |
Ms L Mphahlele |
(Leadership Talent, Service Provider as observer) |
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(d) |
Mr Pitsoe has extensive marine mining experience which he accumulated while employed by De Beers. |
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(3) |
Yes. Mr Pitsoe was employed at Hernic (Pty Ltd as a General Manager. Hernic and JIC Mining had a customer-supplier relationship, where HIC was a mining contractor to Hernic. The information was not disclosed as it was not requested either in the job application forms of the interview. It can be recalled that Hernic and JIC are private companies and did not have a relationship with DPE’s SOCs. We will be looking into these matters more closely in the coming weeks. |