Ellen Tshabalala must be removed from Transnet board

07 December 2014

I will today write to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, requesting that she invoke her shareholders' powers in terms of the Companies Act, 17 of 2008 and remove Ellen Tshabalala immediately from the Transnet Board.

Section 71(a) of the Act empowers the minister to convene a shareholders meeting where she, as the governments representative and sole shareholder of Transnet, can pass an ordinary resolution resolving that Ellen Tshabalala be removed from the board.

Last week Ms Tshabalala was found guilty of misconduct for lying to Parliament about her qualifications. It was determined that Ms Tshabalala was not in possession of any of the qualifications which she claimed to have obtained from UNISA. These bogus qualifications however remain part of her bio on Transnet's website.

Ms Tshabalala has displayed outright dishonesty by firstly lying about her qualifications and secondly by lying to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications' Inquiry into her qualifications. The DA has already laid charges of perjury in this regard. 

A person with questionable integrity, who faces criminal investigations and is on record lying to Parliament, should not be employed in the public service, let alone on the board of a state owned enterprise. 

With the constant crises that plague state owned enterprises, focus cannot be diverted from the real work that has to be done. Ms Tshabalala has proved with her past conduct that she is divisive, deceptive and misleading. 

Ms Tshabalala must be removed from Transnet's board. The continuing scandal around Ms Tshabalala's qualifications should not be allowed to engulf Transnet as well.

Statement issued by Natasha Michael MP, DA Shadow Minister Public Enterprises, December 8 2014

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