Africa Wild

I only remember the protests against the liberation of fishing in the reserve, but that is quite some time ago.

Ezemvelo grilled over budget, staffing issues

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa ... s-11109577

KWAZULU-NATAL / 7 SEPTEMBER 2017, 08:40AM / THAMI MAGUBANE

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife management were grilled over underspending, key positions remaining vacant and weak revenues, by members of the Finance Portfolio Committee.
Pietermaritzburg - Finance portfolio committee members in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature this week voiced their concern at the financial performance of Ezemvelo KZN
 Wildlife.

The conservation body, which appeared before the committee this week, has been in the news following the confusion over the aborted resignation of its chief executive and criticism over the appointment of some board members.

DA committee member Francois Rogers said: “Every year they come before us and every year they are disappointing. If this was my business I would declare it insolvent, this is run like a spaza shop.

“There are too many problems highlighted, there is inadequate staffing, there are changes in the board, this all seems like there are systematic political problems."

Presenting its 2016/17 
financial results, the organisation painted a dire financial picture, saying it had problems attracting people to its resorts and therefore had generated less revenue than expected.

It was also revealed that the organisation, which has a budget of more than R1 billion, had underspent it by around R162 million.

“This institution is not going to survive; there is a lot of money that is coming from the public because people care about the environment,” said committee member Maggie Govender.

The committee also heard yesterday that the entity had underspent on salaries by close to R20m as it had critical staff vacancies. And they had also underspent by millions on infrastructure.

“Among the positions vacant are critical positions like those of field rangers,” said Govender.

The committee members said the entity needed to generate its internal revenue.
The entity’s senior management defended themselves, saying the under-spending on compensation of employees was due to the fact that there was a process to rationalise entities under the Department of Economic Development, with which they did not want to interfere.
The chairperson of the Ezemvelo Board, Zwile Zulu, said they were working hard to turn the entity around. “Rome was not built in a day.”

He said when the new board took over, they had encountered numerous anomalies they were trying to fix, including that the entity was using an organogram that had not been passed.

“There were challenges with the supply chain management process, that person was reporting directly to the chief executive and their qualifications were questionable.”

MEC for the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Sihle Zikalala said the process of rationalising the entities was going ahead and the cabinet should make a decision by next month.

They are stealing the money.

That would explain the under-spending

https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News ... o-20200220


Scopa blasts Ezemvelo
2020-02-21 14:15
Clive Ndou


Officials from the troubled Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife were sent packing by members of the provincial Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) after failing to come up with a turnaround plan to rectify poor management practices at the entity.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which was one of the KZN government entities that appeared before Scopa at the provincial legislature on Thursday, was heavily criticised for its failure to address weakness identified by the Auditor-General, Kimi Makwetu.

Amongst other things, Makwetu found that the entity had failed to follow proper procurement procedures and had incurred millions of rands in irregular expenditure. The conservation entity, which falls under the provincial Economic Development Department, had also failed to appoint properly qualified people in its supply chain management (SCM) unit, resulting in the flouting of procurement processes, the AG found.

However, when the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife management presented its remedial action plan to Scopa, MPLs were not convinced that the plan will prevent the recurrence of the several breaches identified by Makwetu.

In their presentation, Ezemvelo officials revealed that the entity was also assisting certain community members living around its Didima Resort in Drakensberg to set up a Section 21 company to run some camping sites at the resort.

However, the proposal was rejected by Scopa members, who said such a company was bound to benefit a select few and exclude the majority of the community.

Scopa chairperson, Maggie Govender, who was also not impressed with Ezemvelo’s failure to appoint a permanent SCM manager, described its involvement in the setting up of the Section 21 company as something “bordering on criminality”.

“What if another Section 21 company comes up and demands to be given the same contract? Your mandate is conservation and not to set up companies.

“Your response is terrible and we won’t accept it,” she said.

IFP MPL Mntomuhle Khawula accused Ezemvelo officials of conducting themselves as if they were operating within a “Banana republic”.

“Your presentation is a joke,” he said.

DA MPL Francois Rodgers said it was unacceptable that Ezemvelo kept coming up with the same excuses each time it appeared before Scopa.


“I have been hearing the same things since I become a member of the KZN Legislature seven years ago, it’s depressing. It’s always the same thing, the supply chain management,” he said.

Economic Development MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube, who agreed that Ezemvelo management should go back and prepare another presentation for Scopa, implied that its officials had misled her.

“They gave me the impression that they were assisting community members around Didima to form a co-operative and not a Section 21 company,” she said.

Old new story

Is Ezemvelo a para-statal, whole-statal entity or what

They are obviously a bunch of lazy, not very clever thieves

THE EZEMVELO BOARD HAS BEEN SUSPENDED - and the fox has been left to guard the hen-house!

https://www.facebook.com/27664079905714 ... =3&theater

The public no longer have faith in forensic audits and suspensions. Especially when the process the MEC alludes to, appears to have already been rigged.

"I can confirm that I have approached the Honourable MEC for Finance in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr. Ravi Pillay, MPL, to institute a forensic investigation at Ezemvelo, which will be conducted by an external entity to be appointed by the Honourable MEC.

"Pending a decision by the Honourable MEC for Finance as alluded to above, the Acting Chief Executive Officer will act as the Accounting Authority for Ezemvelo"

The correct way forward should be for the National SIU (Special Investigations Unit) to be called in to investigate, and that those implicated cadres, cronies and looters be fired and made to appear before Judge Zondo as part of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

Supsension of the Board of Ezemvelo Wildlife

Statement by the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Nomusa Dube-Ncube on the suspension of the Board of Ezemvelo Wildlife

18 August 2020

Durban : Once again I wish to express my appreciation to the lawmakers who are serving in the Portfolio Committee on Conservation and Environmental Affairs.

Today, during the Virtual Sitting, they were informed about developments in one of our entities, Ezemvelo Wildlife.

On the 28 April 2020 we met during the Budget Hearing and presentation of Annual Performance Plan. This virtual meeting was robust and characterized by honest reflection on the state of Ezemvelo, one of our most important entities in the province.

In a true sense of democracy, ever since that meeting - leaders of political parties have been speaking with one voice on the need to ensure the stability of Ezemvelo. They have been demonstrating that they represent the interest of those who elected them into office.

As the department, we agree with lawmakers. We believe that our nature conservation is another critical avenue at our disposal as we confront the challenge created by COVID-19.

Today, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee presented my formal letter to the members of the committee informing them about the suspension of the Board of Ezemvelo Wildlife.

I have exercised my discretion to suspend all the current Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Board (“Ezemvelo”), in accordance with the provisions of section 12 of the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Management Act, 1997 (Act No. 9 of 1997) (“the Act”), as a result of the prima facie allegations against the Board as a collective.

I also confirm that I have approached the Honourable MEC for Finance in KwaZulu-Natal, Mr. Ravi Pillay, MPL, to institute a forensic investigation at Ezemvelo, which will be conducted by an external entity to be appointed by the Honourable MEC for Finance, and to designate an appropriate person as the Accounting Authority of Ezemvelo, in accordance with the provisions of section 49(3) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999).

Pending a decision by the Honourable MEC for Finance as alluded to above, the Acting Chief Executive Officer will act as the Accounting Authority for Ezemvelo, in accordance with the provisions of section 49(2)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999, provided that he has been instructed to only exercise such duties as are absolutely crucial to the continued functioning of Ezemvelo.

Progress Reports will be submitted to the Honourable Members of the Committee on a regular basis, to ensure that the Honourable Members are appraised and kept abreast of developments at Ezemvelo.

After allegations of maladministration were published by various media houses, I assured the people of this province of my commitment towards transparency and accountability.

I undertook to ensure the following:-

●Firstly, to brief Premier Sihle Zikalala and Members of the Executive Council about the overall management of Ezemvelo and steps to be undertake to turn around the situation;

●Secondly, informing parties involved about the way forward;

●Thirdly, informing members of the portfolio committee on conservation and environmental affairs about interventions and way forward;

Lastly but not least – I undertook to to inform the members of the public about all interventions. Members of the public are critical because as public representatives, we represent their aspiration. They are the taxpayers and whom we were elected to serve.

At this stage we wish not to cloud all processes focusing on instituting this forensic investigation at Ezemvelo with unnecessary comments in the media and other platforms.

This is the point I reiterated during the sitting of the Portfolio Committee.

Ends

ISSUED BY THE MEC FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS – NOMUSA DUBE-NCUBE

It was about time