Richard Calland
THE consortium of management consultants hired by Parliament to investigate restructuring, at a cost of almost half a million rand, is racked by internal tensions, accusations against one partner of previous failures to deliver and the defection of a respected team member.
The South African firm of Kenneth Mgqamqo & Associates joined forces with the international giant Deloitte and Touche to win the tender put out by the presiding officers (Speaker of the National Assembly Frene Ginwala and President of the Senate Kobie Coetsee) at a price of R430 000 plus direct disbursements.
In the lead-up to the presentation of an interim report last week, “significant differences of approach” emerged between the partners. A source close to Kenneth Mgqamqo and Associates revealed that it was unhappy with the rigidity of Deloitte and Touche’s approach.
“They are trying to impose their set methodology on the problem as if Parliament was just another corporate job. But it is not. It is unique and needs a more flexible approach.”
An informant close to the Speaker’s office told the Whip that Ginwala was “not entirely happy with the way things were going” and conceded that the process “was a bit of a mess. They are trying to apply rigid systems on a flexible situation. Parliament is not a business — it is more like a university”.
It is in this context that a number of senior parliamentary staff members expressed concern at the news that self-employed management consultant Tony Harper, the third element of the consortium, had left the project team. According to sources close to the Speaker’s office, Harper resigned because “he felt his principles were being compromised”.
The source said that Harper was “prepared to be flexible, he had built up good personal relations and had won the trust of most people. Moreover, he is committed to genuinely transforming Parliament”. Harper himself would make no comment.
Another informant described relations between Kenneth Mgqamqo and Associates and Deloitte and Touche as reflecting the “cultural geography of the parliamentary system”.
‘The South African representatives of Deloitte and Touche are white, male Afrikaners. The people of colour on the team are all from Kenneth Mgqamqo. Thus, tensions on the ground are reflected in the consulting team.”
Questions are being raised over Mgqamqo’s capacity to deliver. In 1994, he was employed by the Western Cape Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as a district electoral officer, but was dismissed on the eve of the historic April election after a bitter dispute between him and Western Cape IEC deputy director Kuleleka Lubelwana.
Mgqamqo was responsible for a team of 10 people with jurisdiction over the critical Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town, which included Khayelitsha township. Lubelwana, who is now employed as Director of SCATT (the Social Change Assistance Trust), told the Whip Mgqamqo was dismissed at the end of Tuesday April 26 1994 — the special voting day for the elderly, infirm and disabled — because of his alleged failure to deliver.
Later in 1994, Mgqamqo was contracted by Lingelethi City Council — which also covers Khayelitsha — to do some organisational restructuring at a contract price of R300 000. Again, there was a failure to deliver. A senior source at Lingelethi City Council said they were “dissatisfied with the product. They seemed like they could do the work, but the problems they were hired to solve are still there”.