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Felix said that after receiving the information, he approached the executive committee suggesting an investigation whose intention was to protect Uplands.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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The board of an elite private school in Mpumalanga has fired a director whose wife blew the whistle on misappropriation of a R4 million donation from Standard Bank.

The donation was made available for an outreach programme and intended to improve teachers’ effectiveness, especially of those from rural and under-resourced areas to improve numeracy, literacy, and pedagogy.

Uplands College director, Julian Felix (50), has responded by lodging an application in the Mpumalanga Division of the High Court to set aside the board’s decision taken on March 9.

According to Felix’s affidavit, which The People’s Eye has seen, directors of Uplands NPC “targeted and removed me consequential to my whistleblowing.”

Uplands NPC board deputy chairperson, Jon Chantler, did not respond to written questions. “We are preparing a formal response to your questions and we will revert back to you,” was all Chantler said.

Felix chaired the finance committee because of his extensive experience of working at Standard Bank while his wife, Iris, was employed on a fixed-term contract from June 1 2023 to December 1 2023 as outreach consultant to streamline the donation.

Iris had complained about the gap between Standard Bank’s expectations of its donation and Uplands Outreach input. She claimed in one of the internal correspondences that a senior told her that: “Things were always done this way and donors are all happy.”

The saga, said Felix, started when his wife began questioning the way the funds were used, and the quality of the programmes being implemented. Felix said the board members effectively demoted Iris by taking all her duties.

In November 2023, Iris was told that her contract would not be renewed. Felix said that the board accused him of having shared information with his wife which was not supposed to.

“This is actually a nonsensical way of reasoning as it was my wife that conveyed the issues to me and to the board, and accordingly, the information shared by me to her was information already obtained by herself through her employment with the respondent (Uplands NPC),” Felix wrote.

Felix said that after receiving the information, he approached the executive committee suggesting an investigation whose intention was to protect Uplands.

“I, on several occasions raised certain prudent concerns in respect of the finances of the respondent and the manner in which specifically the Standard Bank grant was being utilised and managed. The more I asked questions and raised concerns, the more I was met with the wrath of the respondent, and I was continually stonewalled in my attempt to bring the matter to the board’s attention.”  

Felix said that he believed he had a fiduciary duty as a director.

The procedure that the board followed to remove him was irregular and formed grounds for the reviewing and setting aside of the board’s decision, he said, because the board did not present him with the charges when it invited him to a special meeting.

Felix said that he was not aware of the charges he was going to face and his request for a member of a finance committee to attend was denied.

He said that Section 59 of the Companies Act granted him protection to raise matters without fear of retribution, and immunised him for criminal, civil and administrative liability.

“My actions have not caused any harm to the respondent and contrary to this, have my actions been intended to protect and safeguard the respondent and to ensure statutory compliance as well as to ensure that the financial aid being received from benefactors is appropriately utilised.”