Denel chair Gloria Serobe has asked to be released from her duties, bringing to an end the current term of office of the defence and technology conglomerate’s board of directors, according to trade union Solidarity.
The Centurion headquartered labour organisation, long a thorn in the side of Denel management, particularly as regards retrenchments, non- and short payment of salaries as well as missing contributions to medical and pension funds, said her resignation was announced to Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence (JSCD) by Minister Angie Motshekga last week.
There was – at the time of posting – no indication of Serobe’s exit or the term ending of its board of directors from Denel. Previous Denel boards and chair appointments were the prerogative of the now defunct Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and final selection of replacements for Serobe and her co-directors now rests with Motshekga as minister of defence and military veterans.
Motshekga officially “inherited” the ailing defence and technology conglomerate at the start of the current financial year following a Government of National Unity Cabinet decision last year to move management of a number State-owned enterprises (SOEs) from the DPE to ministries suited to their line functions.
A Solidarity statement has it Serobe’s resignation “follows an 18 June meeting between Solidarity, other recognised trade unions and Denel leadership. During the meeting, Solidarity strongly criticised Denel’s continued failure to turn the company around, called for the chairperson’s resignation and emphasised that it is time for a new board to be appointed”.
“For too long workers paid the price for Denel’s institutional failure – its inability to pay salaries and implement increases, all while claiming to have turned a corner,” the statement quotes Derek Mans, network co-ordinator for Solidarity’s aviation and defence sector, as saying.
“Denel needs more than stability; it needs execution,” he is on record as saying.
The trade union sees the resignation of the board chair as an opportunity for meaningful reform, pointing out its Denel dossier, released in April 2018, shows how years of mismanagement and state capture “hollowed out the organisation’s capabilities”. Recent SIU (Special Investigating Unit) findings, welcomed by Solidarity, confirm “the extent of this devastation and underscore the urgent need for ethical and competent leadership at Denel”.
With key contracts such as Project Hoefyster in collapse and South African soldiers deployed in conflict zones without adequate equipment, the consequences of inaction grow more severe by the day, according to the statement.
Mans hopes the resignation is more than symbolic – “it must signal the beginning of real, focused change”. Denel’s future cannot rest in the hands of appointees lacking industry knowledge or urgency. It needs a board that can deliver.”
Solidarity wants to see a strong, reconstituted Denel board that embodies ethical leadership, with a “deep and practical understanding of the defence industry” and able to demonstrate a clear commitment to advancing public-private partnerships to support the oft-voiced Denel turnaround.
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