JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 3.30pm.
THE Mpumalanga government on Tuesday ordered disgraced provincial parks board chief Alan Gray to resign, and fired the entire board of the Mpumalanga Parks Board.
Gray, who reportedly accepted the order on Tuesday morning, has however been promised a sizeable severance package and will not be subjected to a disciplinary hearing for his role in a series of secret shady deals. The government would not disclose the amount of the package.
Gray is being investigated by the Heath special investigative unit for issuing the promissory notes to financial brokers in return for offshore loans of between R340 million and R500-million.
Announcing Gray’s fate, Mpumalanga environmental affairs MEC Fish Mahlalela said that he had also dismissed the MPB’s entire board of directors and is going to campaign for the dissolution of the parastatal as a whole.
Mahlalela revealed that he was prompted to dismiss the board after discovering that detailed board minutes contradicted their insistence that board members were not properly informed about the promissory note scheme.
The minutes revealed that the board had decided in January to keep the scheme secret from former environment MEC David Mkhwanazi, Mahlalela said. He refused to elaborate on the allegations that Premier Mathews Phosa and other politicians had interfered with the board. “Make your own judgment, I cannot comment,” he said. — African Eye News Service