JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday
MPUMALANGA’S controversial parks chief Alan Gray has been dismissed for gross misconduct and financial irregularities – after a two-year disciplinary process that cost the taxpayer over R1m.
The dismissal, just two days before his five-year employment contract with the Mpumalanga Parks Board lapsed, was recommended by an independent disciplinary panel headed by Advocate Kobus Lowies.
The panel found Gray found guilty on eight financial misconduct charges after verifying evidence that he misused taxfunds for political and personal gain.
Lowies found that Gray irregularly used taxfunds to bankroll at least three African National Congress (ANC) Youth League conferences at local hotels. He also misused public funds to pay off a vehicle, pay medical expenses, and repair a second vehicle for ANC Youth League provincial secretary James Nkambule, who served on the MPB’s board of directors.
Other major irregularities detected by Lowies included at least two secret account transfers from the MPB to a front company, Phambili Construction, which included senior provincial ANC and MPB officials on its board and later paid part of the funds into Gray’s personal bank account.
Acting MPB chief executive Abe Sibiya will continue managing the parastatal until the position is re-advertised. Gray has appealed his dismissal and Lowies’ findings.
Gray and Nkambule this week appeared in the Nelspruit Regional Court on 77 linked criminal theft and fraud charges totalling R2,3m. The two were arrested last year after they allegedly masterminded a network of secret companies to siphon money out of State coffers.
Gray admitted in a confession to Mpumalanga’s cabinet at the time that he created the network to help bankroll the ANC’s election campaigning.
Provincial ANC Youth League organiser Alfred Thumbathi and sacked Mpumalanga Parks Board accountant Maxi Green each face between 33 and 37 charges for their part in the alleged scam.
Gray’s former finance director Nico Krugel was recently sentenced to an effective six years jail on 20 fraud charges for his role in setting up two of the front companies.
Gray has earned his full R44000 per month salary, or a total of R1,1m, since he was suspended on fraud and misconduct charges in September 1998 for his role in the R1,3bn promissory note scandal, in which he secretly signed away 19 game parks as collateral for a series of illegal offshore loans of roughly R300m each. – African Eye News Service