Avani Hotel race scandal

TheVoiceBW
ACCUSED OF RACISM AND BIGOTRY: Allan Clingham

*MASS RESIGNATIONS AS STAFF ACCUSE GM OF RACISM

*UNQUALIFIED WHITE PERSONNEL APPOINTED BOSSES OVER BATSWANA

“Racist, bigot and bully!”

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These are some of the strong and unflattering words that scores of harassed and oppressed Avani Hotel employees have used to describe their South African boss, Allan Clingham.

55-year-old Clingham’s oppressive and shocking management style was exposed this week in a social media post that went viral and got the whole nation up in arms with many calling for a protest march to the hotel, whose Executive Management is predominantly made up of white South Africans.

Speaking in an interview, a fed-up but fearful employee who requested for his name not to be mentioned to avoid possible victimisation, said, “ What I can tell you is that in the one year that Allan has been the GM here, the hotel has become a living hell for staff. He is cruel, he is mean and he is rude and ruthless. His favourite line is; ‘I am untouchable.”

Apparently, Clingham developed a habit of randomly letting employees know how ‘untouchable’ he was after he failed an internal Team Management Engagement Survey (TMES), which fingered him as a racist.

“Even though my score is in the red, I am not going anywhere,” he would allegedly gloat in executive meetings, a source has revealed.

Another disgruntled manager spoke of how Clingham targeted all local senior managers who challenged his weird management style or called him out for being racist, with either unprocedural or constructive dismissal, which caused a mass exodus of 16 senior managers within a year.

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So far, 14 of those have filed complaints with the Department of Labour while some have taken Avani to the Industrial Court in lawsuits of not less than P1 million each.

Clingham’s recruitment style has also been slammed – by a former senior manager – as flawed in that he seeks to replace highly qualified Batswana with either unqualified white South Africans or under-qualified Batswana, who he can totally mistreat and control because they would be indebted to him.

“A typical example is when he recruited Pulafela Moothai, an under-qualified Food and Beverages Manager who holds a Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) qualification over Cecilia Rammuso, a highly-qualified Food and Beverages (F&B) Manager who holds a Masters Degree in Hospitality and has massive experience in the industry. He actually disregarded the interview score in which Rammuso had trounced Pulafela, and instructed his Deputy Manager to hire Moothai, who came last among the interview candidates. As if that was not enough, he then went ahead and promoted an Assistant Barman to be F&B Assistant Manager,” the flabargasted inside source revealed.

Asked for a comment, Avani spokesperson, Nikki Chigodora, referred us to Southern Africa region Marketing Manager, Janine Smith, whose phone rang unanswered while Clingham was not available for an interview.

A Motswana minority Avani shareholder, Robert Mpabanga did not respond to text messages sent to his phone.

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