After months of whistleblower reports, investigations and lobbying, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) COO Lungelo Ntobongwana and chief corporate services officer (CCSO) Lizo Makele have been suspended.

The precautionary suspension was enforced on July 25, nearly a year after the Democratic Alliance (DA) first raised concerns over their alleged conduct during their respective stints as acting CEO and several months after Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau greenlit an investigation in February into the SABS for alleged corruption and mismanagement.

“The tenures of Ntobongwana and Makele were marked by significant reputational damage due to multiple staff suspensions, clashes with the main union the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu), loss of accreditation of certain laboratories and a devastating cyber-attack,” Parliamentary member and Trade, Industry and Competition spokesperson Toby Chance said on July 29, noting that the suspensions were welcomed by the DA.

In a series of letters to Tau dating back to August last year, Chance drew the Minister’s attention to numerous emails from whistleblowers calling on him to take action to stop the alleged scaremongering tactics reportedly employed by various executives, which led to a drop in staff morale and lowering of productivity in the organisation.

The suspension of the two executives comes just days before the investigation is due to be submitted. The new acting CEO Blake Mosley Lefatola was praised for taking this action.

An anonymous whistleblower letter, which Engineering News has seen, applauded the suspensions, stating that “… for the first time since 2018, there has been any sort of decisive action that is motivated by doing the right things and not to feed self-serving interests.

“His actions are not ‘extraordinary’ by any means. It’s just that he is doing the right things in the right way. Employees applauded the receipt of a communication from the acting CEO in explaining what was going on, because there has been a vacuum of information from the previous few administrations.”

The anonymous letter noted that Lefatola was to be commended for not appointing any of the recycled heads of departments to assume the acting of those positions, because that basket of leadership had allegedly been unwilling and/or unable to stop the dysfunction and, therefore, needed to be treated as part of the problem. 

“Yes, these are precautionary suspensions. However, these two are at the centre of every grievance, whistleblowing report (both internal and external) and the heart of SABS dysfunction.

“Now that the two lynch pins are on suspension, the SABS can finally actually focus on performance and deliverables rather than focus on dodging attacks and victimisation and bullying from the COO and the CCSO,” the whistleblower said.

Meanwhile, as further evidence of problems besetting the SABS, earlier this month its National Electricity Testing Facility suffered a break-in and the theft of a significant amount of copper cabling, an indication of inadequate security measures being in place, Chance pointed out.

“The DA calls on . . . Tau to publicly release the investigation report without delay. The report's findings and recommendations will shed light on years of dysfunction at this vital institution and should set a clear path ahead for the new board to place it on a secure footing for the future,” Chance said.