The Public Protector has launched an investigation into the potential conflict of interest arising from Jimmy Manyi's dual roles as director-general of the Labour Department and president of the Black Management Forum.

The complaint against Manyi, who was provisionally suspended earlier this month as director-general, was brought by Paul Hoffman, a director of the Institute for Accountability, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's office said on Thursday.

"The investigation is underway," Kgalalelo Masibi told Sapa.

Manyi ran into turbulence recently when Norway's ambassador to South Africa requested a meeting with Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to express concern about the manner in which Manyi raised the issue of black economic empowerment (BEE) during an official meeting.

"There were certain things discussed and the way in which they were brought up in that meeting that we did not appreciate," ambassador Tor Christian-Hilda said after the meeting.

Christian-Hilda and two other senior diplomats from the Norwegian mission met Manyi in Pretoria in early March to discuss Norway's cooperation with South Africa's decent work programme through the International Labour Organisation.

He subsequently sent a diplomatic note to International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, from where the matter was passed on to Mdladlana.

Manyi confirmed that he had offered to give Norwegian companies a workshop in BEE and said that he saw nothing wrong with this.

He was suspended by Mdladlana on June 4.

There had earlier been reports that the minister had asked him to choose between his two jobs, but Mdladlana denied this.

Shortly before he was suspended, Manyi alleged that a KPMG report had revealed corruption by senior officials in the Department of Labour.

Manyi said that Mdladlana knew about the report, but both Mdladlana and KPMG denied that it existed.

Long-standing tension between the minister and the director-general was exacerbated recently by reports that Manyi had ordered labour officials to inflate the department's budget needs in order to secure an additional R1-billion from Parliament.