Mbalula throws in the towel over Boxing SA chiefs
SPORT Minister Fikile Mbalula has distanced himself from the appointment of the Boxing SA chief executive and the sports body ’ s chief financial officer despite giving assurances in September that both highprofile vacancies would be filled by last month.
BSA has not had a permanent CEO since Moffat Qithi was suspended in 2013 for not disclosing previous criminal convictions during his interview.
The CFO position has also been vacant since Kgosimang Mosupa, who was suspended in October 2014, was dismissed for financial irregularities in July.
But after Mbalula told his 398 000 Twitter followers that the two positions would be filled by the end of last year, it seemed the beleaguered boxing body would finally move towards more stability.
But when approached for comment by Sunday World this week after missing his own deadline, Mbalula referred all inquiries to BSA chairwoman Muditambi Ravele.
‘‘ Please ask Ntambi. They [BSA] are handling that issue, ” he said.
Ravele admitted that they had indeed missed the deadline in Mbalula’s September tweets.
‘‘ We are behind our schedule to have those vacancies filled,” she said. ‘‘ We will urgently follow up with the security department which was doing the security checks on the people we have short-listed.”
It is not clear why Mbalula is distancing himself from the appointments as according to the Boxing Act of 2001, it is the recognisability of the sport minister and the finance minister to appoint the BSA CEO. The CEO’s salary is paid by the two departments. The CFO’s salary, however, is paid by BSA itself. Qithi received full pay of R100 000 a month until he was sacked in July last year after a tribunal found him guilty on 10 of 14 charges, five of them involving “gross dishonesty ”.
Loyiso Mtya was originally appointed as acting chief executive, but he quit while suspended amid several allegations of corruption, fraud and mismanagement.
Masilo Maake, the coolheaded, soft-spoken administrator, was then seconded from the labour relations department at Sport and Recreation SA.
Maake has steered the troubled BSA ship through the turbulent waters of the past few months and Ravele gave assurances that they would speed up the appointments of the CEO and the CFO to end the uncertainty.
She said the embarrassment caused by Qithi’s appointment was one of the reasons they delayed filling the vacancies as they are going over all the candidates with a fine tooth comb.
‘‘ We must also appoint managers for the Free State, North West and Limpopo, ” she said.