EOH CEO Stephen van Coller

EOH Holdings could soon be blacklisted from doing business with government following the public sector corruption scandals uncovered at the group in recent years.

According to a report (paywall) in Business Day on Tuesday, EOH has approached the State IT Agency (Sita) “in mitigation of sentence for its past misconduct”.

The potential sanctions come despite determined moves by EOH and its CEO, Stephen van Coller, to clean up the rot left by the previous management team. According to the newspaper report, EOH is talking to Sita, which manages centralised IT procurement for the state, to have EOH placed on “probation” for past wrongdoing instead of facing a blanket ban. Van Coller has reportedly described the possible sanctions against EOH as “unfair” given the malfeasance didn’t occur under the current management team’s watch.

TechCentral last week broke the news that EOH was suing former top managers – including co-founder and former CEO Asher Bohbot – for R6.4-billion in damages over the corruption and governance failures that took place while they were leading the group.

Apart from Bohbot, who is being sued for almost R1.7-billion, EOH is also going after former chief financial officer John King (R1.7-billion), former public sector head Jehan Mackay (R1.5-billion) and former head of EOH International Ebrahim Laher (R1.6-billion).  – © 2021 NewsCentral Media

Now read: Civil suits a ‘significant milestone’ in cleaning up EOH rot