Mpumalanga Parks Board’s controversial boss has had his powers cut while the Dolphin deal is modified, reports Justin Arenstein
THE Mpumalanga government has moved to clip the wings of its outspoken parks board boss Alan Gray over the controversial deal with the Dubai-based Dolphin Group.
The deal would have given Dolphin exclusive commercial rights over the province’s best- known tourist sites in return for funding for the Mpumalanga Parks Board.
This week, Mpumalanga MEC for Environmental Affairs David Mkhwanazi said he had always been against the deal, and had sent Gray a memorandum about aspects of the proposed contract before it was signed last year. He says his written warnings were ignored and the deal was “steamrollered” through.
Now Mkhwanazi said he is moving to “re- exert” his political control over the supposedly autonomous parastatal, including changing legislation to dismiss the board’s internal tender committee, cutting Gray’s powers and imposing severe financial restrictions on the board.
He also said the provincial government was taking over control of salaries at the board after complaints from employees in equivalent posts in the province who say they earn far less.
The Mpumalanga government stayed unusually quiet, despite widespread public criticism of aspects of the plan, until the contract was revised on Wednesday, four months after the Mail & Guardian first exposed details of the deal.
The original contract would have given Dolphin a commercial monopoly of Mpumalanga’s prize resorts and reserves for 50 years. After the public outcry the deal was watered down, limiting the contract to 25 years, and cutting the number of sites to which Dolphin will have exclusive rights.
Even this revised contract has come under scrutiny. The national Portfolio Committee on the Environment has written to Environmental Affairs Minister Pallo Jordan demanding a full investigation of the contract, arguing that game reserves are a national asset that should not be commercialised – particularly to pay for the operation of a single government department employing less than 600 people.
Last week the M&G reported that Gray was employed by the board as a consultant at R50 000 a month. It has been established that he is employed as chief executive of the board on a five-year contract at a salary of between R34 000 and R40000 a month, with added perks and benefits the value of which he and his employers have not released.
Gray owns, or is involved in, several businesses – including a helicopter charter company – which continue to provide services to both the provincial parks board and the provincial government.
Another figure in the Dolphin deal controversy has emerged following investigations by the M&G. He is Gray’s good friend Sean McMurray. McMurray leases to the board its regional offices in Witbank. He also sold half his interest in two Mpumalanga hotels to Dolphin during the exploratory meetings with Dolphin executives, which took place in Dubai and London last year.
The board recently appointed McMurray as chairman of the Somalanga Development company which will develop the board’s flagship resort, the Songimvelo Game Reserve, in a joint venture with Dolphin. Gray has denied any business links with McMurray.