Amatola Water Board CEO Lefadi Makibinyane was suspended on Friday in the middle of chairing the company’s 2017-18 strategy session at the East London Golf Club.
His sudden suspension is over claims he unlawfully increased his salary and bunked work afterwards.
Makibinyane yesterday confirmed the suspension to the Daily Dispatch, adding that it was done in a humiliating manner in front of staff.
He asked: “Couldn’t it have been done any other day?”
A ministerial task team looking into the state of affairs in the Amatola Water Board recommended in its report before Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane that Makibinyane be suspended for misconduct. Makibinyane said the charges were frivolous and lacked merit.
He said the 2015 salary increment, that cost the the company more than R116000, was done on Mokonyane’s instruction.
The task team also found Makibinyane spent most of his working hours in the air rather than in his office, but the CEO yesterday said his travels were for the benefit of the company.
“I sit on the board of Rand Water – what a privilege because I am transferring best practices knowledge to my team at Amatola Water. These board meetings are not daily, they happen every once in a while and I attend.
“I sit on the board of the Construction Industry Development Board, a critical institution which is a regulator of the construction industry. Amatola Water deals with the construction industry; it is a privilege to sit on that board as CEO of Amatola Water.
“I am sitting on the Presidential BEE Advisory Council that drives transformation and advises the president about transformation. What a privilege it is for a CEO of Amatola to be sitting on that council.
“These things were well negotiated before I joined Amatola Water and I disclosed that I will not abandon these responsibilities,” Makibinyane said.
Mokonyane assembled a task team last year after Amatola Water employees affiliated to municipal workers’ union Samwu downed tools in the wake of the arrest of Amatola Water Board chairwoman Nokulunga Mnqeta by the Hawks on fraud charges.
The union had written to Mokonyane calling for Mnqeta’s removal as chairwoman of the board pending her fraud case after she was released on bail for allegedly defrauding Amathole District Municipality’s development agency, Aspire, where she had served as CEO.
The task team has recommended that those employees be disciplined as their industrial action had nothing to do with conditions of employment at Amatola.
Mnqeta’s case has been postponed in the East London Magistrate’s Court to July 24 for a plea and a trial date. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Water Board CEO ‘humiliated’ by public suspension
His sudden suspension is over claims he unlawfully increased his salary and bunked work afterwards.
Makibinyane yesterday confirmed the suspension to the Daily Dispatch, adding that it was done in a humiliating manner in front of staff.
He asked: “Couldn’t it have been done any other day?”
A ministerial task team looking into the state of affairs in the Amatola Water Board recommended in its report before Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane that Makibinyane be suspended for misconduct. Makibinyane said the charges were frivolous and lacked merit.
He said the 2015 salary increment, that cost the the company more than R116000, was done on Mokonyane’s instruction.
The task team also found Makibinyane spent most of his working hours in the air rather than in his office, but the CEO yesterday said his travels were for the benefit of the company.
“I sit on the board of Rand Water – what a privilege because I am transferring best practices knowledge to my team at Amatola Water. These board meetings are not daily, they happen every once in a while and I attend.
“I sit on the board of the Construction Industry Development Board, a critical institution which is a regulator of the construction industry. Amatola Water deals with the construction industry; it is a privilege to sit on that board as CEO of Amatola Water.
“I am sitting on the Presidential BEE Advisory Council that drives transformation and advises the president about transformation. What a privilege it is for a CEO of Amatola to be sitting on that council.
“These things were well negotiated before I joined Amatola Water and I disclosed that I will not abandon these responsibilities,” Makibinyane said.
Mokonyane assembled a task team last year after Amatola Water employees affiliated to municipal workers’ union Samwu downed tools in the wake of the arrest of Amatola Water Board chairwoman Nokulunga Mnqeta by the Hawks on fraud charges.
The union had written to Mokonyane calling for Mnqeta’s removal as chairwoman of the board pending her fraud case after she was released on bail for allegedly defrauding Amathole District Municipality’s development agency, Aspire, where she had served as CEO.
The task team has recommended that those employees be disciplined as their industrial action had nothing to do with conditions of employment at Amatola.
Mnqeta’s case has been postponed in the East London Magistrate’s Court to July 24 for a plea and a trial date. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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