New unit may be why road agency staff quit

The spate of resignations by officials at the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA) appears to be linked to a plan by the board to establish a unit staffed by consultants and that would take control of the capital spending budget.

The board, which accounts to IFP member of the mayoral committee Nonhlanhla Makhuba and was appointed by her in March, decided to set up a project management unit during one of its first meetings.

The move has raised a red flag for staff as it constitutes the establishment of a parallel structure with control over contracting with suppliers.

In the past financial year, the JRA had a R3.5bn capital budget and an operating budget of R884m. The three-year capital budget as of 2017-18 is R4bn.

Makhuba said in an interview on Wednesday that Mpho Kau had indicated in his letter of resignation that certain decisions taken by the board would affect him. Asked if those decisions included the resolution to establish the management unit, Makhuba said yes.

It is also clear that board chairman Sipho Tshabalala intends to play a hands-on role in the agency and has asked for an office in the JRA and a personal assistant.

Makhuba told Business Day she did not see it as a problem to have a board chairman who was hands-on.

She said the project management unit had been introduced to “assist” with spending the capital budget. Makhuba said the JRA had problems spending its budget and she did not want a situation where the mayor allowed the JRA to get a lot of the capex budget, but that it was not spent accordingly.

MD Sean Phillips and infrastructure head Mpho Kau resigned over the past week and company secretary Karen Mills, who has made claims of governance failure, was suspended.

Makhuba said she had told Phillips that people would be stepping on each others’ toes before the induction of the board was done, but it did not mean it was done in bad faith.

She said if there was any evidence to support the claims Mills had made, due process would be followed.

Mayor Herman Mashaba’s spokesman, Luyanda Mfeku, said Mashaba had met Phillips, Makhuba and the city manager to discuss matters relating to the JRA before Phillips’s resignation.

He said a complaint in respect of the handling of the human resource process involving Mills’s suspension had been lodged with the council.

“The city is in the process of investigating concerns raised in the complaint,” Mfeku said.