No action on media body report
Muthambi now at odds with new communications minister
ADAMNING report detailing alleged gross mismanagement and abuse of power at the embattled Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) has gathered dust for nearly a year, despite the staff’s cries for help.
The failure to act on the report has now pitted former communications minister Faith Muthambi against her replacement, Ayanda Dlodlo.
The 12-page report was commissioned by Muthambi in November 2015.
It took a year to complete, according to an official response from her office.
Media mogul and former agency board member Mzwanele Manyi headed the team tasked to probe “governance matters” at the agency.
He handed the report to Muthambi’s office in November last year.
The report recommends that disciplinary action be taken against agency board chairwoman Phelisa Nkomo. None has been taken. Nkomo was found to have not signed off on board minutes, submitting extravagant claims for board fees and “other expenses”, and holding an excessive number of board meetings without Muthambi’s permission.
Nkomo failed to respond to questions sent to her.
Manyi’s report zeroes in on the conduct of Nkomo, who was found to have claimed R235 204 for board fees and expenses between January and December 2015.
The investigation team also found that R95 000 was paid to a company Nkomo allegedly recommended to take minutes of board meetings.
She also allegedly tried to thwart the investigation by addressing correspondence to Muthambi on behalf of the board.
The letter was verbally withdrawn by other board members when meeting Manyi’s team, after it emerged that they did not agree with the content.
According to the agency’s regulations, the board is allowed four normal and eight special board meetings annually, with board members paid R2 200 a meeting, excluding travel expenses.
Manyi’s team could find no approval for the board to deviate from the prescribed number of board meetings, which saw Nkomo paid about R200 000 irregularly.
Over and above Nkomo misrepresenting the board in her attempts to stall the investigation, it was found that the minutes of board meetings were not signed by Nkomo, contravening the MDDA Act, and that R1-million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure had been incurred through the hiring, and subsequent withdrawal of the offer, of Dr Samuel Vilakazi as chief executive.
Manyi’s investigation revealed that legal advice to conduct in-depth reference checks on Vilakazi – a former chief financial officer for the Department of Telecommunications, who was then under investigation for collusion on a multimillion-rand communications tender – had not been heeded.
Vilakazi never reported for duty and the agency was forced to withdraw his appointment and pay him a settlement.
Manyi’s report states that the unsigned board minutes are not only in contravention of the law but also undermine the authenticity of the minutes and the validity of the decisions contained therein.
“It was noted that the chairperson of the board was operating as if she was the executive chairman,” the report says.
“There is no positive correlation between the amount of time and expense attributable to the chairperson’s active involvement at [the] MDDA.”
The report concludes that the findings “provide prima facie evidence that may amount to misconduct and [Nkomo’s] failure to properly fulfil her duties as chairperson of the board”.
Muthambi has denied keeping the report under wraps, saying it was among the paperwork handed over to new Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo and her deputy, Tandi Mahambehlala, in April after the cabinet reshuffle.
Muthambi’s spokesman Pfarelo Maduguma, said Muthambi had called an urgent board meeting to discuss the report in December last year, which Nkomo did not attend.
In an e-mailed response to Muthambi’s chief of staff, dated December 7, Nkomo says that “due to an urgent matter I need to attend assigned by higher office I am not in a position to attend the meeting this morning”.
There is no indication what the “higher office” was.
Maduguma said the report had been sent to Nkomo for a response to the allegations.
He said Nkomo never responded and the report was handed over to Dlodlo in April to follow up on and implement the recommendations.
A copy of the report had also been given to the deputy minister.
Dlodlo and Mahambehlala have reportedly been at each other’s throats over the MDDA issue, with the matter further complicated by Friday’s firing of Donald Liphoko, the agency’s seventh acting chief executive in the past three years.
It is understood that the battle between Mahambehlala and Dlodlo is reaching boiling point, and the minister firing Liphoko without informing her deputy – who oversees the agency – is seen as another slight to Mahambehlala.
In August, Liphoko spoke out against the agency’s board during a visit by the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications.