Former Tourism Deputy Minister Fish Mahlalela has been confirmed as the Chairperson of the embattled Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency Board.
Mahlalela had been the acting Chairperson of the agency’s interim board since August, last year.
According to Mahlalela, the new board has its work cut out, saying the interim board had filled critical vacant positions.
The agency is mandated to grow tourism and manage biodiversity to stimulate sustainable economic growth that is inclusive and creates employment.
But corruption and maladministration overshadowed this mission.
The agency has had at least six individuals appointed as permanent or interim Board Chairpersons since 2006.
The agency faced leadership challenges, corruption and the mismanagement of funds.
Last year, its CEO Mduduzi Vilakazi resigned shortly before facing a disciplinary panel.
His resignation followed a forensic investigation into alleged irregularities, including of what investigators described as a R380-million ghost tender scandal.
The newly appointed MTPA Board Chairperson, Fish Mahlalela says all hands are on deck.
“Now, there’s a lot of improvements in that respect but there’s still some works to be done, secondly you might be aware that we have approved various critical strategic positions that need to be filled some of them have already been advertised they are now in the process of being filled and they would be another bench to be advertise we are hoping that by the end of the third quarter most of the strategic positions would have been filled, we would able to achieve the target we have set for ourselves.”
According to him, they are putting systems in place to curb corruption.
“We created system that would able to check each other but we are also filling the senior manager for supply chain because the posts has been vacant i don’t for how long is for some few years back and it was done deliberate not to fill it because they wanted abuse the system as results of that, we will be filling that position , it has been advertised closed now we are in process of short listing and we would have to fill the post as matter of agency because as long as there’s no senior person who take accountability and responsibility everybody they do as they wish at the end but the other problem was that at centre of all this things it was the CEO himself so the problem was.”
Mahlalela says forensic reports have helped them identify governance lapses. They are currently implementing remedial actions, he says: “There are some steps that the forensic report recommend that need to be taken one to refer some of the matter to the police, so we have referred some of the issues to the HAWKS, so the HAWKS are working on it and the second issue is about recover of some of the money and the view of the forensic audit was not used for the intended purposes, so we have solid assist from the SIU.”
This while, the Kruger Lowveld, Chamber of Business and Tourism welcomed the newly appointed board.
The Chamber’s Linda Grimbeck says they are hoping that the new board will improve relationship with tourism stakeholders.
“They are very strong candidates, we welcome Mr Fish Mahlalela to remain as the chair and of course we know the other board members including Prof David Mabunda which is our president and we know the other board member candidates, I personally do not know the other colleagues that were appointed but I’m sure we would get to know them along the line. I’m confident that the interim board makes a difference to lay down policy and they got a good foundation to stay on, so we welcome the appointment.”
