The department of public enterprises last month announced Du Toit as the new group chief executive after Cabinet approved the appointment. He is expected to assume duty on January 14, 2019.
African News Agency (ANA) reports the move to appoint Du Toit came when Zwelakhe Ntshepe resigned with immediate effect as Denel chief executive as far back as May last year after 20 years at the company, citing personal reasons. He was then replaced with Michael Kgobe, the chief executive of subsidiary Denel Aeronautics, who remained in the pos in an acting capacity.
Siboniso Mdletshe, Limusa general-secretary, said they found it “disgusting and very irresponsible” for a state-owned entity like Denel to ignore the findings of the Hoefyster Employment Equity Compliance Assessment (HEECA) report and to employ a white male as the group chief executive.
“One of the recommendations in the HEECA report, which we fully support, is that Denel must immediately stop the appointment and employment of white males in important positions,” Mdletshe said.
“That recommendation was based on the finding that Denel [seems] to be overlooking other races when it comes to employment in strategic positions and we as Limusa raised this complaint with Denel in 2017 as we saw black professionals, in particular, being overlooked in favour of white and Indian males… We call on the minister in the department of public enterprises, Pravin Gordan, to provide necessary leadership in ensuring that the recommendations of the HEECA report are implemented as Denel promised four months back. We further call on the parliament to look at this matter closely and enforce Denel to comply with the Equity Act.”
The Citizen reported that during the announcement of Du Toit’s appointment, Denel board chairperson Monhla Hlahla said Du Toit brought with him “a wealth of experience in the defence and manufacturing sectors” and a solid career track record that would be of value to the Denel group.
Hlahla said Du Toit would be able to build on the turnaround strategy for the troubled defence company and will be critical in strengthening the executive management capacity of the company.
