Lerato Lesole had no idea what he was stepping into when he left Alexander Forbes and joined PetroSA in 2006. It was a time when the parastatal was still reeling from the Oilgate scandal, in which R11m of PetroSA's money was funnelled into the ANC's 2004 election coffers through Imvume Management.
A key function of Lesole's job as chief risk & compliance officer at PetroSA was to investigate apparent fraud within the corporation. After a year in the job he started receiving whistle-blower reports implicating company directors, including CEO Sipho Mkhize and CFO Nkosemntu Nika, in dodgy dealings.
Lerato Lesole - Lesole's probe showed PetroSA CEO and CFO had been involved in irregular tender practices
After months of investigation, Lesole claims, he uncovered evidence which showed Mkhize and Nika had been involved in irregular tender practices. He also says that some directors have shareholdings in companies that had contracts with PetroSA. The FM has established independently that Mkhize has a shareholding in at least one company (of 26%) linked to a former contractor.Lesole also implicates former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who is believed to have overridden PetroSA's board to appoint Mkhize as CEO in 2004 when she was minerals & energy minister. Mkhize's term has been racked with reports of shady dealings, including allegations that Mlambo-Ngcuka's brother, Bonga Mlambo, received a R50 000 kickback in the Oilgate case, which was reopened by the public protector last month.
Mkhize was acting chairman of PetroSA at the time of Oilgate.
Other scandals allegedly involve Mlambo-Ngcuka, her former political adviser Ayanda Nkuhlu, and controversial Dutch tycoon John Deuss. Nkuhlu, a former PetroSA board member, headed the local subsidiary of Deuss's Transworld. PetroSA and Transworld formed a doomed joint venture over which the parastatal was fined R12m for violating exchange controls.
Then, in August last year, PetroSA was also fingered by the UN for dishing out oil deals to a consortium of foreign businessmen who allegedly plundered DRC resources and diverted the proceeds to Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe and his defence force.
Sipho Mkhize
Yet, Mkhize's contract was renewed for another five years late last year shortly after Thabo Mbeki was ousted as president, and Mlambo-Ngcuka stepped down as deputy president and joined the Congress of the People (Cope).
Lesole claims Cope members and sympathisers were calling the shots at PetroSA, and skimming off money through an Isle of Man captive insurance account to fund the financially struggling party in the run-up to the April general elections. These allegations would amount to a scandal similar to Oilgate - just a different party and a different year. The FM has been unable to verify transactions from this captive account to Cope because they are extremely difficult to trace - even for tax authorities.
PetroSA and Mkhize ha ve denied all the claims against the company's directors and/or the political connections to Cope.
Lesole says he informed Mkhize about his investigation into Nika, and later told chairman Popo Molefe of his probe into Mkhize. But he claims this cost him his job. Before he was told to pack his bags, the company offered him a three-month salary payment (his total annual package was R1,4m) around July 2008 on condition that any information he'd gathered at PetroSA would not be used against the company or any employee. He refused and there were no disciplinary charges levelled against him at that point. In August 2008, Lesole received a bonus letter for R234 045 "for your valued contributions over the past year", signed by Mkhize.
Popo Molefe
Then, in September he was called in for his first disciplinary hearing, and was fired in December for "gross misconduct". PetroSA claims Lesole was fired for not following "company policies and procedures" in carrying out his investigations. Yet the company refuses to disclose to the FM its policies and procedures. Lesole is fighting his case in the labour court this week.Some of Lesole's claims revolve around a contract PetroSA awarded to waste management company EWMS Petrochemicals two years ago to clean out the storage tanks at Milnerton, near Cape Town. There was still crude oil sludge in the tanks dating back to the apartheid days and PetroSA planned on storing finished products - petrol and diesel - in them.
WHAT IT MEANS
 Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka suspected
UN fingered PetroSA
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The contract was mired in controversy from the start because EWMS drained the sludge and sold it to a refinery, pocketing the proceeds (which PetroSA initially claimed was a breach of contract). A dispute was declared, and PetroSA paid EWMS a settlement in April this year.
But an FM investigation into the deal shows that Mkhize had meetings with the winning bidder, including rounds of golf, prior to the contract being awarded to EWMS. (Read full story "Cleaned out one way or another".)
Another issue is Project Jabulani, which is meant to replace gas reserves that are fast diminishing at Mossel Bay. It has been raised as a "red flag" and could threaten SA's future fuel supplies. (See full story "When oil is not well".)
