The entire board of KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife has been suspended, KwaZulu-Natal agriculture and environment minister Mtholephi Mthimkhulu announced on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference in Durban, Mthimkhulu said the decision to suspend the board had been taken following recommendations from the province’s finance portfolio committee as well the provincial standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).
Ezemvelo — the entity tasked with managing the province’s game parks — has been under a cloud of suspicion following an adverse audit opinion issued by the Auditor General for the 2006/07 financial year.
In a statement issued earlier on Thursday, Mthimkhulu said the audit report had been followed by a ”diagnostic review”, which had in turn been followed by a forensic audit undertaken by Deloitte.
Mthimkhulu said: ”The forensic report findings were released and are damning. Unfortunately the report also fingered the board members.”
He said the suspension of the board members did not necessarily mean they were guilty of any offence, but that it rather afforded them the ”opportunity to clear themselves, in line with the principle of audi alteram partem [to hear their side of the story]”.
The full audit report has never been made public and Mthimkhulu would not say at Thursday’s press briefing exactly what the board members had been accused of. He said that not all of the five board members had been involved in the allegations.
Asked if any of the board members faced potential criminal charges, Mthimkhulu said: ”Criminal charges do not involve the board members. There are other people [within Ezemvelo] who have faced criminal charges and disciplinary action.”
A summary of the forensic report — a copy of which was presented to Scopa — recommends that criminal action be considered against six employees.
The report also recommends disciplinary action be taken against 41people in Ezemvelo, including three in the organisation’s executive, for ”failing to adhere to and comply with EKZNW’s policies, procedures and guidelines”.
It is not clear if this refers to the board members.
The report also recommends disciplinary action against 23 staff members for an assortment of offences, including the ”inappropriate use of corporate cards”.
Mthimkhulu also declined to comment on the future of the organisation’s chief executive, Khulani Mkhize. He has been on ”special leave” since June when he allegedly crashed a hired rental van during a tour to Tembe Elephant Park.
Mthimkhulu said a tribunal had been held and that he would make an announcement on Mkhize’s future in the coming week.
The matter of R22m
In November last year, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife board chairperson Patrick Sokhela said that an amount of R22-million allocated for special wildlife projects was not unaccounted for, but it was just not recorded on the annual financial statement.
He said the board had always accounted for the money, adding that the R22-million was meant for projects of poverty alleviation, nature conservation and alien plant eradication.
Sokhela said at the time that the audit committee was concerned about the manner in which the project finances were reported.
”On July 11 2007, when it was too late to review this policy in the 2006/07 financial year, a technical opinion was received from the Auditor General indicating the need for the organisation to amend this policy,” he said.
He said the requirements had since been met and would be reviewed in the 2007/08 audit report. ”This is our reason on why the R22-million was not recorded in the financial statements,” he said. — Sapa