Cope member Phillip Dexter has been fired as chairperson of the Mpumalanga economic growth agency board (Mega), provincial economic development and planning minister Craig Padayachee said on Thursday.
”The allegations and subsequent findings into the conduct of the chairperson points to serious undermining of the position that he holds,” said Padayachee in a statement.
He said this was according to a forensic investigation undertaken into allegations of fraud, corruption and maladministration made against Dexter.
Part of the investigation was to see whether Dexter had allegedly misused a credit card and whether he had adhered to management policies regarding the procurement of goods, said Padayachee.
”The findings confirm that the chairperson has breached corporate governance protocols. This raises serious ethical issues on the part of the person holding such important position in our administration.”
Padayachee said the investigation also indicated that Dexter had not complied with procurement procedures and had been involved in ”apparently wasteful … and irregular expenditure”.
Dexter confirmed in a statement on Thursday night that he had been ”removed from the board” but denied any accusations against him.
”I deny categorically any suggestion, accusation or statement that I have ever committed any unlawful, corrupt or ethically questionable action while chairperson of Mega.
”It is surely more than coincidental that the day after I filed papers at the Pretoria High Court citing MEC Craig Padayachee as the first respondent in the matter of the so-called forensic investigation at Mega by Ramathe Fivaz that he has chosen to remove me as the chairman and member of the its board,” he said.
He said it appeared as though this had been the intention all along.
”Certainly his action [is] completely ignoring my rights under the law, especially my constitutional right to just administrative action. His actions are not dissimilar to those perpetrated by the apartheid regime.”
In November last year, Dexter was granted a leave of absence by the provincial government while it probed the allegations against him. At the time Dexter had recently resigned from both the SA Communist Party and the ANC to join the Congress of the People (Cope). He said that he had been ”subjected to sustained abuse, intimidation and even death threats by the organised criminals that have plundered the MEEC [Mega’s predecessor] and have attempted to do the same to Mega.”
He said at the time that he believed his then-suspension was political.
On Thursday, Padayachee responded to claims that the decision to investigate Dexter was politically motivated.
”The oversight role of the office of the MEC would be incomplete if we do not act on any issue, at anytime to defend the policies of this government,” he said.
”We have acted with the same determination on issues of corruption in the past.”
However, accusing the ANC of abusing its power as a government, Dexter said he intended taking legal steps to ”bring this representative of what has become a reactionary regime to book”. – Sapa