Former 4IR commissioner ordered to pay R2.9m for serving two masters

A former 4IR commissioner and leading information technology expert, Sibongiseni Thotsejane, who secretly juggled two jobs, has been ordered by the labour court to refund more than R2.9m she earned from the V&A Waterfront.

The 30-member commission was set up and chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019 to assist the government to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the digital industrial revolution. It is no longer functional after submitting a report helping to establish the country’s digital roadmap.

For almost two years Thotsejane, a former Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) employee, drew two salaries while moonlighting as chief information officer at the V&A Waterfront, raking in more than R1m ― and both her employers were unaware of her double dealing.

However, her luck eventually ran out, and on Friday the labour court in Cape Town ordered her to pay nearly R2.9m to the V&A after finding that she had failed to provide a truthful account of her previous employment.

In October 2015 Thotsejane was appointed as the V&A’s chief information officer while she was still employed by the CPUT, where she had been a co-ordinator since August 2014 and earned an annual remuneration package of R606,374.96.

During the court proceedings , former acting dean of the CPUT’s business and management faculty, Willem Lotter, testified that Thotsejane’s absenteeism had become so severe that he instructed her to report to him daily in the dean’s office so her attendance could be monitored. But according to Lotter, Thotsejane still failed to comply with the instruction.

Her employment at the V&A was also characterised by late arrivals, missed meetings, high absenteeism and the submission of numerous medical certificates.

Judge Robert Gerald found that Thotsejane had also misrepresented her departure from a former job at Engen, claiming that she had left because of “political challenges” and an ongoing merger, “when she had actually been dismissed for gross misconduct, as confirmed in an arbitration award”.

Before joining the V&A, Thotsejane also had a high court judgment against her in favour of Engen. The judgment, dated July 29 2014, related to vehicle finance amounting to R503,786.

When the V&A’s ITC checks uncovered the judgment, Thotsejane told the company that the debt had been incurred in her name by her former husband and that she was working with her attorney to resolve the matter.

Her employment history also came under scrutiny when she claimed in her application that she had left Old Mutual after being headhunted.

An investigation instead found that she had been dismissed after a disciplinary inquiry into multiple misconduct allegations, including insubordination, unlawful possession of property, unauthorised absence from work and breaches of company policies and procedures.

Old Mutual provided the V&A with documentation supporting the findings, including the disciplinary proceedings and their outcome. Thotsejane subsequently referred an unfair dismissal dispute to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which was later settled.