Khadija Magardie
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has appointed as its new CEO a junior management consultant with no background in gender politics after he drafted a glowing report on the commission’s activities and eulogised its senior management.
The consultant, Zith Mahaye, was recruited to advise the commission on ways to improve its image. It has been wracked by conflict among its staffers and frequently pilloried for its failure to perform.
Commission staffers say the 260-page management report is more a “slap-on-the- wrist” than a serious attempt to iron out the various problems besetting the CGE.
The report consists mainly of an amalgam of letters of warning to certain staff members, mediocre attempts at job evaluation, and suggestions on how to improve the image of the commission – as opposed to offering any meaningful analysis about the problems facing the organisation.
Mahaye was commissioned in April to conduct the probe, at a cost of nearly R80E000. In the report he ingratiated himself to the executive committee of the CGE, showering it with laudatory epithets.
“The team of the Exco [executive committee] is super, and it is super team spirit of highly competent commissioners that keeps the commission afloat,” he says in one chapter.
In another chapter he says the administrative leadership of the organisation is invested with “a blessing” of the commissioners.
“You are said to be held in high regard by the president and various Cabinet ministers,” he writes.
The report also takes sideswipes at former CEO Colleen Lowe-Morna, accusing her of “manipulating the functioning of the commission to suit her own personal interests”.
The appointment of Mahaye has led to serious divisions among staffers.
In an internal memo sent in June, deputy CGE chair, Pumelele Ntombela-Nzimande, informed staff that the management report would be conducted, but emphasised that Mahaye had “not made himself available” for the post of CEO.
It appears that Mahaye received substantial backing from the Exco as a result of his report, where he suggests that promoting someone from within the CGE will be more cost-effective and suggests a new salary bracket of R400E000 for the CEO.
Mahaye’s report does, however, raise the issue of labour relations within the CGE, which have taken a turn for the worse in the past seven months.
Since December 14 out of 33 staff members have left or resigned, many from middle and senior management. There has been a 40% staff turnover in six months, with the hiring and firing of staff nearly commonplace.
One senior staff member, who has taken the CGE to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, was axed after not being in her office when the consultant called.
The latest to resign is a prominent member of the legal department.