Under siege

“Are you able to trace him?”G asked getting impatient.

“I don’t have to, I know where he is”said Black widow.

“You do?” asked G surprised. He had spent months trying to trace the blackmailer and came with nothing.

“Yes but something does not add up” Black widow said.

“What doesn’t add up?”G asked.

“Blackmailing is unlike him” Black widow said worried.

“You know the person?” G asked curious.

“Yes, its Buz, I trained him. When I was young and stupid, I hacked a government website and I was sentenced to a community service in a institution for kids with special needs. That’s where I met Buz. He has autism, very smart but misunderstood. I showed him some skills and I was amazed at the things he could do. By the time he was 18 years, he moved out of the institution and he was able to use his skills to support himself. He even donates to that institution and support kids with autism. This guy would not blackmail anyone unless he’s being forced to do it” Black widow said worried.

“I need his address” G said.

“I will take you to him, it might be easier if I’m there” Black widow suggested.

JC was all over the news with a scandal about its sportsman/women being unfairly treated with one favoured over the rest. When S’bu got to work, JC was surrounded by journalists who wanted his comment on the matter. He informed them that JC will issue a formal statement once the matter has been thoroughly investigated. He had not paid too much attention on the SJC lately because Tsepo and Charlie were doing a good job. He has been focused on tracking his father’s blackmailer that had not met his managers in two months.

When he got to his office Tsepo and Charlie were already waiting for him looking nervous.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?” S’bu asked sitting down.

“I will explain, since this is all my mess and Charlie had nothing to do with it, Tsepo said. We have a total of 25 man and 26 women signed up so far. All of them I personally selected according to the company criteria. Their salaries and bonuses is also in accordance with our policy. Last year I suggested bringing along some of them to our community service, especially when it was their own communities that were selected. The communities, especially the youth were very excited to see their own doing good for their community and that boasted the number of support and sales for them. That also increased the salary level and bonuses for those sportsman and women. Soon everyone was eager to know when their communities were next and that’s something I had no control over. That’s where the rumours of favouritism started. Everything became worse when I got hurt and booked off for four months, most believe that my salary level should have downscaled and I should have appointed someone else to continue with the community service. Those are the complaints I’ve been made aware of so far. I thought we could manage it, but no one showed up to the meeting we set up to hear their grievances. I’m sorry, if I knew things would escalate this fast, I would have informed you early” Tsepo said apologetic.

“My PI will set up a meeting with all the parties tomorrow, please send me all the contracts” S’bu said dismissing Tsepo and Charlie who had no idea whether their boss was impressed or dissatisfied with them. S’bu’s PI did not waste time sending invitation to the meeting and advised the parties involved to bring their legal counsel.

That evening, Thandi was worried about all the negative news against JC but mostly about Tsepo.

“S’bu you know all these allegations are not true, why are you not protecting him?” Thandi asked.

“Why are you so worried about Tsepo, do you still have feelings for him?”S’bu teased.

“S’busiso!” Thandi exclaimed hitting him with a pillow.

“Don’t worry about Tsepo, he has a tough skin and we meeting everyone involved tomorrow” S’bu reassured her.

Thandi nodded but she was still worried. Tsepo was the kindest person she knew and did not deserve any of this.

The following morning when Thandi arrived at work,she was surrounded by journalists.

“Miss Dlamini, you are currently dating JC CEO, is it true that you also dated Tsepo? Is that the reason JC keeps him as a SJC manager? We all know that the CEO is crazy about you, was the position a bribe by him to keep Tsepo away from you?”

Thandi was speechless and questions kept coming. She sighed when she saw S’bu coming towards her. He put his arm around her in a protective manner and went inside ignoring the journalists. “Are you okay?” he asked when they were alone.

“They are bringing up my previous relationship with Tsepo” Thandi told him worried.

“Why are you so worried, now the whole world will know that you have good taste in man”S’bu teased.

Thandi rolled her eyes and left S’bu standing there laughing. He really liked teasing her.

When S’bu got to the boardroom, everyone was already seated. All the sportsman and women were sitting on one side with their legal counsels, Tsepo, Charlie, HR and finance managers were sitting on the other side with Zake who was the legal counsel for JC. The legal counsels were the only people who were chatting happily in the room. For them, this was a job, nothing personal. S’bu greeted everyone and took a seat at the head of the boardroom table between the two groups. After introductions, S’bu suggested that the parties involved state their grievances. Duke, one of the sportsman stood up. He was elected to represent everyone since he was the most vocal with the most complaints. He had prepared a formal presentation of their grievances which he projected on the wall for everyone to see. He showed the areas that benefited from the community service by JC and how much it boasted the support, salary and bonuses on the sportsman/women who originated from those areas. Next to the community service slide he added salaries and bonuses. Everyone could clearly see the dramatic increase in profit for those whose communities were chosen. The next slide showed that Tsepo’s community was chosen every year for the past three years proving the allegations of bias and favouritism. Happy with the response he was getting, he added that when Tsepo got injured, no community service was done for four months making the situation worse, when he could have appointed any of them to do the job. He ended with the national ratings of all of them. The ratings showed that since his injury, Tsepo’s ratings had dropped dramatically and was lower than all of them but his salary was the highest of all of them. Duke went to sit down with a grin, impressed with himself and Tsepo on the other side had his head down looking defeated.

“Before I ask SJC managers to respond, does anyone have anything else to add or subtract?” S’bu asked.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Tsepo and Charlie as managers of SJC, is their anything you’d like to say.”

“No Sir” Charlie responded for both of them. Tsepo just shook his head and continued looking down. The sportsman and women smiled when they heard that Tsepo and Charlie had nothing to say. Their case was too easy to prove, they didn’t even need their legal counsel to represent them.