EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI, Johannesburg| Friday
THE disgraced former chair of the Central Energy Fund (CEF) awarded the head of the state oil company an annual salary of R1,2-million without following proper civil service procedures.
Keith Kunene gave Renosi Mokate, CEO of the CEF, the R100_000 a month salary without consulting the parastatal’s board or seeking approval from government.
Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has expressed dismay over the salary package, but has realised there is little she can do to change it.
Her representative, Kanyo Gqulu, said drastic government action against Mokate’s salary could expose the state to costly legal actions. Gqulu said Mokate would continue to earn the salary until the end of her five-year contract.
Gqulu said a few months ago, Mlambo-Ngcuka ordered the new CEF board to review Mokate’s salary with a view to changing it.
Her salary makes her one of the highest paid civil servants in South Africa – she earns much more that Mlambo-Ngcuka and nearly double that earned by President Thabo Mbeki, who earns about R699_000 a year.
Senior officials say discontent is high among workers and senior staff about the “extravagant” salary paid to top CEF management, especially to Mokate.
They contend Mokate’s salary is “unjustifiable expenditure of public funds”.
Heads of CEF’s subsidiaries earn far less than Mokate. “This could see people resigning because it has always been perceived as an unfair. We need to strike a balance and perhaps Mokate should accept that the salary is irregular and strike a proper deal with the government. She is well qualified for the job but her salary is not in the interests of her own company,” said a senior official at the CEF.
Mokate, who has worked at the Centre for Reconstruction and Development at the University of Pretoria, holds a PhD in development economics. She was appointed executive director of the CEF in 1996.
Gqulu said Kunene was “within his legal right to give her the salary”.
Kunene, whose home was raided by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in February as part of a probe into the R1,5-billion oil deal, has faded from the public eye since the oil scandal.
He stands accused of accepting cash bribes in dollars worth R360 000 and was allegedly promised a further R12-million in offshore kickbacks to arrange the secret oil deal with a London-based trading company, Trifugura, and its South African empowerment partner High Beam Trading International, a Sandton-based company registered in the Bahamas.
A CEF representative said: “I am not allowed to discuss the salary of the CEO in the media. I suggest you call the chairman of CEF, Coen Kruger”.
Kruger is on leave and was not available for comment.