The Government Pension Administration Agency (GPAA) is investigating two white senior officials for allegedly calling their colleagues and the entity’s acting CEO the k-word in their racially charged WhatsApp conversation.
This was after they discovered that the agency was conducting investigations into allegations that the duo was doing business with the state-owned entity.
The two officials are chief information officer Meiring Coetzee and Esti de Witt, a general manager in legal services.
Acting GPAA CEO Job Stadi Mngomezulu asked Coetzee and Witt to provide reasons why they should not be suspended for their conversation, laden with other racial slurs.
Attached to the leaked exchange which exposes a deep undercurrent of racial animosity within the agency is a number Sunday World has verified belongs to Coetzee. While the chat in Afrikaans does not reveal a second number, Sunday World has elected to publish some of the original texts for context.
“Ons het genoeg ammunisie om die kfirs inmekaarsak… Ons nodig dat dit lyk soos black corruption only,” loosely translated as “We have enough ammunition to implode the kfirs… We need it to look like black corruption only,” the chat linked to Coetzee’s
number reads.
Another response states: “Die feit dat die kfirs is nie in charge van die critical components is ’n game changer,” meaning “The fact that kfirs are not in charge of the critical components is a game changer,” the other participant in the chat purportedly wrote.
The messages also betray a personal animosity for Mngomezulu, referring to him as an “incompetent… political appointee” and a “kfir se gesig” (face of a kfir).
Coetzee and Witt’s racial epithets were hurled at Mngomezulu and his colleagues amid a high-stakes investigation into the agency’s procurement processes, ordered by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
Godongwana ordered the investigations at the GPAA, which administers pensions for over 1.8 million public servants, after the award of a tender to a black-owned company, LCS Biometric System, to install a system to curb corruption, estimated to cost about R12-billion in monthly payments to phantom employees.
However, despite being a victim of Coetzee and Witt’s alleged racial attack, Mngomezulu faces internal accusations of applying a double standard in his disciplinary actions.
According to agency insiders, he suspended two black officials, acting CFO Kgaile Molebatsi and chief director Eric Morudu for unrelated offences, without ever asking them for reasons why they should not be suspended, the courtesy he is accused of only affording to the two alleged white racists.
“Why didn’t he present black officials with the letters… but he had the audacity to give white officials letters? To us, that shows how flawed things are in the company and also how biased he is across racial lines,” an insider said, adding that Coetzee and De Witt remain at work while the probe proceeds.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union also entered the fray, demanding an independent forensic investigation.
GPAA spokesperson Mack Lewele said the investigation is underway and defended the decision not to suspend the two. He said the decision was “in line with the regulations, on a case-by-case basis”. He declined to comment further on the matter, citing employer-employee confidentiality.
“In addition to the confidentiality element, some of the questions can only be answered when the investigation has been completed. There are no ‘double standards’ or preferential treatment of any employee/s at the GPAA, we treat every case on its specific merits,” he said.
Coetzee offered to respond to our questions in writing via WhatsApp but failed to do so.
De Witt did not respond to our questions.
