Traffic boss must step down – union

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) boss Makhosini Msibi must do the honourable thing and step down, or take the public protector’s scathing report against him on review, the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) says.

“[The] transport minister [Fikile Mbulula] and the RTMC board must, in the spirit of [the] Thuma Mina [campaign], suspend Msibi immediately and institute a forensic investigation on all contracts awarded since he took over in 2014,” Sophonia Machaba, the union’s secretary-general, said.

This comes on the back of allegations that Julia Manamela, in revelations made by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, had been appointed irregularly as an administration assistant by Msibi.

Before that, she was a receptionist at a Pretoria lodge where Msibi was accommodated in 2014.

The public protector found that the process of employing Manamela in November 2014 was not fair or transparent and that she had been the only one vying for the position.

Mkhwebane said Manamela’s appointment “raised eyebrows” as it appeared that RTMC “deliberately manipulated the process with the intention to employ Manamela permanently”.

She noted that Manamela was promoted to the position of supply chain management practitioner and her salary increased three-fold in six months, from just over R130 000 per annum to R333 000.

A former employee who worked closely with Msibi and was involved in organising accommodation for him in January 2014, confirmed that Manamela had been a receptionist at a country lodge in Irene.

“I was surprised when she arrived at the RTMC offices in Faerie Glen, about two months later, saying she was reporting for duty. I knew that this could not be a coincidence but these things happen all the time,” he said.

Mkhwebane did not look into the allegations of a previous relationship between Msibi and Manamela, which Msibi dismissed.

Mkhwebane also found that Msibi’s appointment of senior counsels, or advocates, to handle disciplinary processes – which did not require such high levels of expertise – amounted to irregular expenditure and that he improperly approved excessive payments to his bodyguards.

Machaba said the union had warned before that Msibi was using lawyers to harass and intimidate staff who became vocal about irregularities at the RTMC.

Machaba said Msibi ignored the fact that one of the lawyers had failed to produce a tax clearance certificate, as required by Treasury.