DA Calls on Property Practitioners Board to urgently suspend CEO

24 March 2022

The DA calls on the Board of the Property Practitioner’s Regulatory Authority (PPRA) to urgently place controversial CEO Mamodupi Mohlala on precautionary suspension.

For a number of years, under the leadership of Mohlala, the PPRA (previously the EAAB) has been mired in controversy.

In response to a parliamentary question posed by the DA, the Minister of Human Settlements has revealed that a sub-committee of the new PPRA Board has been established to investigate yet another raft of serious allegations levelled at the CEO via the Public Service Commission. This, following a previously ordered forensic investigation into the affairs of the Entity which remains incomplete.

Yesterday afternoon, the Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Pam Tshwete, also personally apologized to Parliament for the conduct of the CEO during a meeting of the Human Settlement's Committee.

Late last year, the Pension Funds Adjudicator Tribunal found that Mohlala disregarded scheme rules when she allegedly instructed the Entity’s human resources department to suspend the deduction of pension fund contributions for 5 new employees. Other employees who joined the employer on the same date and on the same terms were registered as members of the fund. It is not clear why 5 of these recruits were given special exemption by the CEO.

Despite numerous attempts by the previous Board to enforce compliance, all communication with the human resources department of the entity was allegedly terminated by the CEO, who insisted that the matter be dealt with by her office.

In its finding, the Tribunal noted that the CEOs lack of regard for compliance with the rules of the fund was of serious concern and that she “perceives her role within the employer as including overriding the rules of the fund”. The Entity was ordered to pay all arrear contributions plus late payment interest backdated to July 2019 – resulting in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in excess of R1 million.

In terms of Treasury Regulations, alleged financial misconduct by an employee of a public entity must be investigated by the accounting authority. In terms of Treasury’s Framework on Irregular Expenditure this must be dealt with by loss control or internal audit – and ideally outsourced to protect against internal influence.

It is simply not possible for the Board’s internal sub-committee to conduct a full and proper investigation into such serious and on-going allegations whilst the CEO remains in office.

Whilst this investigation should ideally be outsourced, the DA calls on the Board to urgently suspend the CEO in order for the sub-committee to conduct its investigation with integrity, and free from fear or favour.

Issued by Emma Powell, DA Shadow Minister for Human Settlements, 24 March 2022