Robben Island report ‘will be acted on’

THE Department of Sports, Arts and Culture has said that it has no intention of abandoning the findings and recommendations of the Morar forensic investigation report into corruption and mismanagement at Robben Island Museum (RIM).

A statement issued by the department’s spokesperson, Asanda Magaqa, and co-signed by its chief director for communications and marketing,

Zimasa Velaphi, said: “The department has asked the Board and other relevant persons to pursue all the matters (which include irregularities and breaches of governance) contained in the report to their final conclusion”.

According to the statement, “Minister Nathi Mthethwa appointed the current Board of RIM on July 1, and as such the Board has been in office for almost five months. During this period, the RIM Board could not function properly due to conflicting views among Board members on how the affairs of the Board should be managed.

“To this end, the minister called a meeting on November 28 to mediate the impasse,” read the statement.

It said that in the heat of the discussions, the Board’s chairperson, Bernadette Muthien, walked out of the meeting.

As she had earlier told the minister she planned to quit, “the department resolved to relieve her of her appointment as a Board member and chairperson of RIM”.

Muthien and another Board member, Gregory Houston, quit the Board within days of each other and have since been replaced by former justice minister Michael Masutha and former North West Education MEC Louisa Mabe, while another member of the Board, Khensani Maluleke, is serving as the acting chairperson.

A permanent chairperson of the RIM Board will be announced soon.

Muthien yesterday dismissed the statement as “misinformation designed to damage my reputation”.