David Macfarlane
The National Development Agency (NDA) could have to fork out R2,5-million as the price of getting rid of its CEO, Dr Thoahlane Thoahlane.
And while embattled NGOs around the country are applauding the unexpected and sudden departure of Thoahlane a few days ago, they also point to serious ongoing problems at the agency.
The Mail & Guardian reported last month that the NDA has had access to R340-million during the past year, but has disbursed less than a tenth of that.
The NDA’s core function is to channel government and donor funds to non-profit organisations in their fight against poverty. Angry NGOs and disillusioned former NDA staffers pin-pointed Thoahlane as a major cause of the agency’s dismal performance.
Thoahlane occupied his NDA post for less than a year, but managed in that time to alienate so many NDA staff that about 25% resigned, departing en masse at the end of last year and taking years of accumulated experience in development with them.
Racism, sexism, a deplorable management style and inadequate expertise in the development field are the most frequent charges levelled at Thoahlane. He refused to speak to the M&G.
But the NDA’s alarming failure to deliver should also be attributed to mismanagement by NDA board members and to inadequate government monitoring of the agency, sources say. Established by an Act of Parliament, the NDA has been running for a year, and the Act makes the agency answerable to the Ministry of Finance.
Adult education, early childhood development, gender awareness, human rights education, economic development and land reform are among the areas to which the NDA channels funds.
The M&G has been told that the NDA board summoned Thoahlane last month from the United States, where he was on holiday, and requested his resignation. Asked for confirmation, NDA board chair Delani Mthembu said he had ”no comment”.
Although the NDA maintains that Thoahlane simply resigned, he is apparently asking for five times his annual NDA salary as a settlement. If he succeeds, this will net him nearly R2,5-million.
Mthembu, who takes over immediately as acting CEO, says Thoahlane’s departure ”won’t affect the functioning of the NDA” but plenty of NGOs are hoping that turns out to be untrue and that the NDA’s performance radically improves.
Mthembu admits that ”one of the critical issues” is to speed up the process of actually getting the funds out, saying that large sums have been approved and committed.