NELSPRUIT – After two stormy weeks at the Mpumalanga Tourism and Park Agency (MTPA), marred by the theft of 80kg of rhino horn and the unlawful suspension of its CEO which led to the dismissal of the board chairman, the boat was rocked yet again this weekend with accusation of serious misconduct and criminal actions within the agency in the past.
An Agang pre-election statement, based on the findings by the renowned fraud investigator, Mr Paul O’Sullivan, was released at a media briefing on Saturday. It contained serious allegations against the past management and regulatory board of the agency. It seems that most of it took place before the appointment of the previous CEO, Mr Charles Ndabeni. It also questions the validity of the appointment of its current CEO, Mr Jacques Modipane.
The statement was made under the banner of the Agang party of Dr Ramphela Mamphele. Among a host of other allegations O’Sullivan said, “In period from 2009 through 2010, I was hired by the former CEO of the MTPA Charles Ndabeni, as a forensic consultant, to assist him in bringing the MTPA under control after years of nepotism, and corruption and put controls in place that would help him fulfil his mandate of increasing tourism, improving conservation and creating sustainable jobs.
“What I found would horrify any right-thinking South African and Ndabeni thought that, with my help he would break the back of the institutionalised crime and corruption that was tearing the province apart. My findings included: Game rangers were involved in poaching. The situation was so bad that the more rangers a reserve had, the higher the levels of poaching were. In some cases, they were so involved in it, that a whole industry of bush-meat butcher shops had sprung up around the reserves that fed the demand for cheap meat in the local communities.”
This was followed by a long list of similar illegal practices that riddled tourism and conservation management in the period prior to Ndabeni’s appointment in 2010.
“Despite having provided numerous reports, with substantial evidence, no one (to this day) was prosecuted and Ndabeni, when he placed the matter before the board, was prevented from doing anything and was subsequently asked to leave, that is to say fired,” according to O’Sullivan.
After months of turmoil at the MTPA and millions of rand of unpaid claims by service providers, Ndabeni was finally removed from his position without any official statement ever explaining the situation. O’Sullivan said he prevented from fulfilling his mandate of good management by an over politicised regulatory board. It was loaded by political appointments misusing its position.
At the time of going to press O’Sullivan had yet to react on why no charges against these alleged criminal acts within the organisation under his attention, were ever laid.
