Departing EOH executives were not implicated in corruption: Van Coller

Zunaid Mayet, Rob Godlonton and Pumeza Bam were not implicated in corruption and were not dismissed, EOH Holdings CEO Stephen van Coller said on Tuesday.

The JSE-listed technology group said on Monday evening that Mayet, a former group CEO and most recently CEO of subsidiary Nextec, and Rob Godlonton, the CEO of EOH’s ICT business, resigned last Friday.

Non-executive director Pumeza Bam also resigned from the board. Bam had served as an executive director of EOH for seven years and as non-executive director for the past two years.

“The directors are not implicated in corruption,” Van Coller said in a text message to TechCentral on Tuesday morning. “The resignations are in line with leadership accountability to allow the new management and board to move the company forward with the past behind us. That’s why they are helping with the handover.”

Mayet has been at EOH for the past decade and had replaced co-founder and former CEO Asher Bohbot in the top leadership position of the company before being moved to head up Nextec, a new company in the group that focuses on growth areas in the ICT sector.

Godlonton was an executive director and CEO of the ICT business and relinquished this role and his participation on various EOH subsidiary boards.

Assisting with handover

Both Mayet and Godlonton will assist with the handover until 31 October 2019, EOH said. Mayet intends “embarking on a new entrepeneurial venture”.

News of the resignations came a day before EOH published key findings of an interim probe by law firm ENSafrica into corruption in the group’s public sector contracts.

The investigation unearthed “evidence of serious governance failings and wrongdoing at EOH”, the JSE-listed technology services group said on Tuesday.

The probe, requested by EOH Holdings CEO Stephen van Coller in February in the wake of allegations of irregularities involving the supply of Microsoft software to the South African department of defence, found serious problems in EOH’s public sector business run from the group’s head office as well as similar issues at subsidiary EOH Mthombo.

These include “unsubstantiated payments, tender irregularities and other unethical business dealings”.  — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media