Cosatu says appointment of Tim Harris at WESGRO is corrupt

Lusanda Bill
12 December 2014

The Congress of South African Trade Union in the Western Cape has described the appointment of Tim Harris as CEO of WESGRO as corrupt. 

Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich said the suitability of Tim Harris is highly questionable for such an important position, given his displayed incompetence in matters economic.

Ehrenreich said a job was created for Tim Harris at the City of Cape Town when there was no position and no funds. Money was taken away from delivering services to poor communities to pay him an enormous salary.

“Now that the CEO of Wesgro has left, now we can see that he was just on hold for the job in Wesgro. This clearly smacks of corruption in the City of Cape Town and we are asking the Public Protector to investigate it” Ehrenreich added.

Meanwhile the Chairman of the Wesgro Board of Directors Professor Brian Figaji said the appointment of Tim Harris was not politically motivated. 

He added that Harris went through a lengthy process which was not corrupt.

Figaji said we had 119 applications we shortlisted eight people and one person withdrew. We interviewed seven and sent three people for tests and then we selected one person.

“So that is the process that was followed. I am not sure what the bases for the comment from Cosatu.  I do not know the politics of the city and I am not particularly interested in what is happening there, but we were looking for a CEO for Wesgro” Figaji added.