Mystery of why no action is taken against Acsa CEO
It is gratifying to read the report on Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s reasons for the drumming out in disgrace of Seth Radebe as Transnet director.
Citizens may be forgiven a degree of schadenfreude. It is, after all, the sort of new-broom action the nation celebrated in advance when President Cyril Ramaphosa and his de facto number-two banana Pravin began their work in 2018; the captured state would be free.
But already the commentariat is complaining that Team CR’s vim is barely scratching the surface.
Consider the 74.6% stateowned Airports Company SA (Acsa) which, with its monopoly secure, turns a profit. The nation should probably be grateful for a dividend to shore up the state’s feeble fiscus, but that is part of the problem. The existential threat posed to the economy by mismanagement and corruption has focused everyone’s attention on governance at SA’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Acsa, however, remains under the radar chiefly because its rentseeking pays off. Its profit for 2017 came to more than R2bn, yielding a dividend of R358m.
It doesn’t mean all is well at Acsa, though, and there is cause to suspect that governance issues (to which Transport Minister Blade Nzimande has admitted) may be obscuring the true dividend to which the nation is entitled.
That there are governance issues at the SOE is alarming enough, but that it has been permitted to carry on for years is a disgrace. Much of what is wrong at Acsa has been documented in forensic reports by advisory group Deloitte, attorneys Norton Rose Fulbright and Dr VS Mncube Consulting.
The reports have recommended the suspension and disciplining of several officials, among whom looms large CEO Bongani Maseko. The investigators have enumerated a range of irregularities, including corruption, dereliction of duty and violations of the Public Finance Management Act. Three managers — Percy Sithole (procurement), Jabulani Khambule (regional airports) and legal counsel Bongani Machobane — have been found guilty at an internal disciplinary hearing on corruption charges and of wasteful expenditure.
Yet, Maseko, who faces similar charges, has not been prosecuted. Instead, Nzimande, as shareholder representative, extended Maseko’s tenure by six months in May. The minister said at the time he was acting to “ensure that there is no vacuum of leadership”, yet the department’s official communiqué said the minister would “dedicate his special attention” to deal with allegations against Maseko of irregularities, corruption and violations of the Public Finance Management Act.
For clarity, a citizen might approach Acsa’s official spokesperson, but it won’t help. The public relations firm Acsa hires produces little beyond spin, plus saying it cannot speak for the board where all the trouble is. Next stop is the main shareholder, but that is about as satisfactory as casting a fly-line into the wind. And when the ministerial spokesman does reply, almost everything is being covered except the main question: why is Maseko not facing charges?
Citizens, it seems, are unworthy of such knowledge. It is known though that the staff at Acsa are so worried about corporate governance at their business that they have written many letters to the minister and, in exasperation, to the Presidency, demanding action against Maseko.
Acsa group’s former legal counsel, Bonginkosi Mfusi, has sought a court order to compel the company to provide reasons for not having suspended and disciplined Maseko, and the board members comprising the audit and risk committee have called on Nzimande to take urgent action to advance the charges against Maseko.
The directors who made up the audit risk committee on the board have since resigned. It means the Acsa board, which now consists of three people: acting chairman Deon Botha, nonexecutive director Kate Matlou and CEO Maseko, has become entirely ineffectual, because it cannot under Acsa’s statutes convene an audit and risk committee.
It means Acsa, in effect, does not have a board and thus no corporate governance. And it does not have a board because Maseko has not been hauled before a disciplinary hearing.
Where is Gordhan when his SOE needs him?