Racism Accusations Amongst Kruger Park Staff

[Klipspringer]

They don't live for free, they must rent the rooms and houses.

[Alf]

But if they stay outside the park and don’t work there they would be so happy to stay inside a shack

I call that uninhabitable

[Lisbeth]

1. We should not generalize

2. nor speculate

Nobody should live in a shack anywhere. Unfortunately, the world is full of inhabited shacks

[Alf]

1. We should not generalize

2. nor speculate

Nobody should live in a shack anywhere. Unfortunately, the world is full of inhabited shacks

I do not generalize

Neither do i speculate

But 85% of these people are happy to stay in a shack.... they are not used to something better.

[Richprins]

They don't live for free, they must rent the rooms and houses.

Have found out a bit.

Before the late 1990s there was quite a distinction between permanent and non-permanent staff regarding accommodation.

Virtually all tourism staff and game guards "lived" outside the park on the borders, and still do in fact. So they stayed for free in the relevant hostel/room accommodation at the staff quarters attached to all camps and ranger stations, moving in and out over weekends for example.

Permanent staff would have accommodation costs deducted from their salaries, quite a minimal amount, and lived in grander houses designed for permanent habitation.

The trick is to find out now how tourism staff are accommodated now and if they pay or how it is worked into their packages, as a contact warns this will have major financial implications for SANParks in future should the trend of demanding improvements continue.

On our recent trip we could see major staff accommodation developments (brand new) appearing at the few camps we were near, obviously at huge expense.

Will report back!

[Alf]

[Klipspringer]

Committee meeting DEFF on SANParks on allegations raised by former employee
06 October 2020
https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/31120/

Parliamentary Presentation:

The minutes are now available

Mr Mketeni elaborated that they have three trade unions: NUPSAW, HOSPERSA and NEHAWU that are representing employees in the whole organisation, including Kruger National Park. He confirmed that Adv Mkhize did the investigation in 2019, after the allegations were brought to their attention. There were 11 allegations that were being investigated and nine of those were unfounded but they acted on the two allegations that were legitimate. This resulted in the release of the Head of the Kruger National Park and they were replaced with new management who is looking into issues of discrimination and racism. He confirmed that SANParks is trying to accelerate the process of renovating the houses to livable conditions. It is starting with Skukuza. It has 30 contractors on site in the whole Park presently to look at issues of maintenance and renovations.

Mr Lorimer said that he wanted to know why SANParks chose to appoint Adv Mkhize to investigate these issues. This was because Mr Mkhize had a record, which he wanted to highlight. He said that these should be red flags for anyone seeking to appoint him to a position this important and this sensitive.

The first was that in 2013, the North Gauteng High Court ruled that Mr Mkize had to pay back R1,7 million of a golden handshake received in 2011 which was paid for in exchange for his resignation as a trustee of Liberty’s medical scheme. The court found that the agreement subverted the board’s obligations and that according to the court, Advocate Mkhize seemed blissfully unaware of his fiduciary obligations to the scheme and its beneficiaries.

Secondly, he was appointed as the CEO of the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) and given a five-year contract. When he had more than three of those years still to go, he left with a massive payout, a golden handshake of over R4 million amid reports of irregularities.

Another report was released in March 2020, by Corruption Watch, entitled ‘Corruption in South Africa’s Water Sector’. Giving some background information on the report, Mr Lorimer said that Mpumalanga had put Adv Mkhize’s agency in charge of municipal water programs and an evaluation committee was set up, but after the meeting Adv Mkhize apparently altered the committee’s recommendations and it was alleged that he changed the scores of the committee to favor a company which the committee had scored as amongst the worse and that company was subsequently appointed. There are indications of corruption shown in a database of companies with which it did business. A report found that 76 of 439 companies have the same directors and 108 companies used the same tax number. A Democratic Alliance colleague in the Mpumalanga legislature said that since the inception of MEGA, it had made no positive contributions to the economy of the province. It was used as a vehicle to channel tax-payer money.

Thirdly the Chief Financial Officer of MEGA, Velile Mqhum, was fired in March 2015 after a disciplinary hearing conducted in his absence found him guilty on a range of charges relating to contraventions of the Public Finances Management Act. He took his dismissal to court and won a R2 million payout after an out of court settlement was reached. He alleged that the charges were trumped up by Adv Mkhize when he was in charge and he had alleged that Advocate Mkhize had interfered with supply chain management and tried to force him to pay a service provider half a million Rand in advance. Seeking an answer, he asked why a person with a record like this was appointed to such a sensitive job.

Follow up Response

Ms Yawitch, clarified that Adv Mkhize was not involved with SANParks anymore. All he did was do an investigation and give a report, then it took the process forward and are doing the work with the SAHRC and the CCMA and not with Advocate Mkhize at this time anymore but he did do the initial report.

Mr Mketeni responded that with Adv Mkhize, they followed the procurement process. He does not get involved with those details or in that area of the process because it is run by the Supply Chain Management (SCM), Certified Financial Manager (CFM) and adjudicators. He only became aware of some of the issues raised by Mr Lorimer after Adv Mkhize finalised the report, but they followed the procurement process when he was appointed.

[Alf]

Wow I’m speechless

[Richprins]

Sounds very suspect and political indeed!

[Lisbeth]

He confirmed that SANParks is trying to accelerate the process of renovating the houses to livable conditions. It is starting with Skukuza. It has 30 contractors on site in the whole Park presently to look at issues of maintenance and renovations.

What has all this to do with racism accusations We all knew that Adv. Mkhize was a hot potato..... apart from Sanparks

There were 11 allegations that were being investigated and nine of those were unfounded but they acted on the two allegations that were legitimate

Storm in a teacup