Tyeks Security company, which employs 6 000 people across the country, has been rocked by a scandal involving its employees compromising the company’s recruitment process.
The company said it had to fire two senior employees and investigate three others who allegedly solicited money in exchange for jobs.
The scandal surfaced three weeks ago, when 10 unsuspecting job applicants were concerned after not receiving any callbacks or appointments for a job and went to the company to demand answers.
The company’s spokesperson, Siya Ngcangisa, said the Mthatha-based company needed to act quickly and fire the senior staff members in charge of employing thousands of security personnel.
He said the company’s additional investigations revealed that the scammer was working with an internal syndicate.
The victims were allegedly told to pay between R2 000 and R3 500 to secure the jobs they were promised.
Ngcangisa said seven senior management employees were involved in the scam, that two of them were fired, one suspended and three are currently under investigation.
He said the company has also laid criminal charges with the police.
Ngcangisa said the duo has been working for the company for years. “They are legends, and they have senior positions where they have the power to appoint security guards. They are site managers; they fall into the operations desk,” he said.
Tyeks Security said recently that it had raised concerns about a woman posing as a senior manager and charging jobseekers R800 for security jobs and other posts.
“Some of the victims came forward, and that led us to conduct further investigations, leading us to a web of rot within the company corridors. The investigations also involved telephone records, just to mention a few techniques, and we managed to catch the culprits red-handed,” said Ngcangisa.
Ngcangisa said one of the victims who came forward alleged that he had to sell his sheep for R1 800, to secure a job but when weeks passed without hearing from them, he decided to sound the alarm.
“The company has charged the suspects with soliciting and accepting bribes from the job seekers, which goes against the company policy.”
Ivan Israelstam, the CEO of Labour Law Management Consulting, a company detailing labour law information services, said frequently it is employees who are involved in corruption or giving or receiving bribes.
He said employers were victims of bribery and corruption in a number of different ways.
Israelstam said that to stamp out these practices, employers need to bring criminal charges against employees who perpetrate such crimes.
