KwaZulu-Natal's Dube TradePort Corporation has fired CEO Saxen van Coller for not disclosing a criminal record on her job application.
It announced her axing yesterday and also said it would charge Van Coller, who has been suspended since March, with fraud.
The corporation insisted it had done a background check on Van Coller before hiring her in 2013, but only discovered her criminal record when it began an forensic investigation in October last year.
Addressing her criminal record, it said: "The board views this nondisclosure in a very serious light."
It would not elaborate on the details of her record.
Chairman Bridgette Gasa said: "A screening process can only achieve so much, as we found when we started a more detailed forensic investigation into Van Coller's past.
"We have full confidence in our screening processes, but will continue to assess them in the light of the lessons learnt from this exercise."
Saxen van Coller, who was born Yvette Coetzee but changed her name in 2008, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
A story in City Press earlier this year said Van Coller had lied about having an MBA and a PhD for previous jobs, which included a brief stint with Johan Rupert as head of the Sunshine Golf tour.
She had worked as a CEO at Special Olympics SA and at Ranbaxy, a global generic medicine, manufacturer.
The Dube Trade Port, a KwaZulu-Natal provincial government project, is an industrial development zone that combines an air freight facility with the Durban harbour to improve trading and exporting.
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