Five of Postbank’s seven board members have resigned ahead of the state-owned entity’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday, citing hostile relations with minister Mondli Gungubele.
Sunday World has seen the resignation letters addressed to Gungubele, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.
Those stepping down are board chairperson Thabile Wonci, Gcobani Mancotywa, Vuyelwa Matsiliza, Martin Mahosi, and Dr Leigh Hefer-Hendrikse.
As per a leaked Postbank statement, the board was committed to constructive engagement with Gungubele to foster a working relationship.
“To us, dignity, character, status, and reputation is everything,” reads the statement.
“It is for this reason that we could not be associated with any form of dishonesty, malfeasance, corruption or negligence.”
According to the anonymous author, the only factor that led to their abrupt resignation was Gungubele’s increasingly hostile and oppressive behavior towards the board.
The majority of board members began serving on October 18 2022 following their appointment by then-minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.
They were due to serve for five years from October 1 2022 to September 30 2027. Wonci became board chairperson for the remainder of his tenure.
On March 6, Gungubele assumed his position as minister of communications and digital technologies.
“One hastens to add, amid an unconducive and very hostile attitude by the minister,” according to the leaked statement.
The author cites an example of a board meeting on June 14 when relations between the minister and the board allegedly deteriorated from dismissiveness to outright hostility on the part of Gungubele.
“From the onset, the minister made it clear that he had not attended the meeting to ‘have a conversation’ with board members. He only wanted answers.”
Gungubele’s interest was in the grant payment system contract that FSS Technologies South Africa (FSS) ceded to Electronic Connect (EC).
He alleged that Postbank paid FSS/EC more than R140-million without a valid contract or a normal tender process.
“He asked the members to introduce themselves, and as they stood to introduce themselves, he would point at the member, asking: ‘who are you and what do you know about the EC contract’?”
It is alleged that he failed to allow members to even complete a sentence.
“He would move on to the next member, and so it went on until he walked out of the meeting without the matter being addressed.”
By July, a flurry of letters on the disputed contract had been exchanged between the board and Gungubele.
In the meantime, FSS/EC threatened to switch off services by midnight on July 31 2023 if Postbank did not pay outstanding fees.
The consequences would have been penalties against Postbank from the SA Social Security Services Agency (Sassa) and grant recipients left stranded, according to the statement.
The board outlined the history of the FSS/EC contract, the steps it took to regularise it, and the danger of cancelling it, wrote the author.
However, Gungubele was allegedly steadfast that the board had failed to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities by allowing FSS/EC payments without following legal procedures.
The board rebutted that the contract was signed before its tenure, so the board members inherited it. In addition, the Treasury refused to regularise it.
However, according to Gungubele, the board failed to act with fidelity, honesty, integrity, and in the best interests of Postbank.
Further, the minister required each member of the board to address him on why he should not constitute consequence management against them.
Sunday World heard that the board’s explanations that Postbank could not pay Sassa grants without the switching service fell on deaf ears.
That was until Tuesday when board members received news that Gungubele wanted an item on the removal of board members on the agenda of Thursday’s AGM.
“The allegations of misconduct and dishonesty by the minister remain unsubstantiated and, along with the other allegations as mentioned above, are very damaging and injurious to our dignity and reputation,” reads the leaked statement.
“It is against the aforesaid background that we had to take the decision, hard as it was, to resign our membership as members of the board of the bank.”
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