uMhlathuze Water to lay complaint against City Press over unethical conduct

The Mhlathuze Water Authority is to launch an official complain to the Press Ombudsman against the City Press Newspaper about the paper’s grossly unethical conduct which has resulted in the paper allegedly being openly abused by an aggrieved executive of the entity and being used as a tool to smear the name of its board chairperson.

The authority has taken the decision in light of the fact that it is convinced that the series of articles that have been published by the newspaper regarding the suspended CEO, Mr Makhanya are not only devoid of any bases and substance, but the newspaper has become an instrument that is being used to tarnish the image of the Mhlathuze Water Authority. 

Critically, in spite of all attempts to bring this to the attention of the newspaper that all the allegations being made against its Chairperson are outlandish and baseless because individuals behind them had an axe to grind, with the Chairperson for her strong stance against fraud and maladministration, the City Press has thumbed its nose to this and acted in a manner that violates the very principles of journalistic fairness.

Among other falsehoods which were contained in the report, are the alleged abuse of the CSI initiatives and that there had been a gross flouting of good governance procedures at the entity, all of which were placed squarely at the door of our Chairperson, Dudu Myeni.

The allegations are not only fictitious, spurious but they are also baseless. In this regard, it becomes clear to any objective reader that in an atmosphere where a particular narrative has been created and which is being uncritically parroted by a  media house in the country about our chairperson, the aim of the of story is to cause further damage to the reputational image of our Chairperson.

Put simply, in the final analysis the article served one purpose which is to be a smear campaign on the Chairperson as part of the vicious and unrelenting onslaught by City Press  and others against the Chairperson and any business operation associated with her.

This onslaught is aimed at smudging the image of the Chairperson and preventing her from her holding any positions in the future boards.

Firstly, the motive of the journalist, Mr Sipho Masondo who has been pursuing this story  remain suspect after he sent questions to the Chairperson of Mhlathuze Water Board closer to the date of publication, without given her adequate time to respond to them. From our vantage point, it is clear that the there was one objective to ensure that the story is published without the response of Water Authority.

Secondly, the article is riddled with inaccuracies and incorrect assertions. In terms of corporate governance, the executive management of Mhlathuze Water  Authority or any other state entity for that matter, operates from delegated authority from the Board of Directors in keeping with the prevailing legal prescripts.

It is therefore fallacious to conceive of a situation where management can declare certain operational information as confidential and not accessible to the board which represents the shareholder. These include reports regarding among other issues the procurement policies of the entity and the adherence to. The Board has the right as an oversight body to request information, especially where allegations of 120% escalations on certain tenders, and service providers complaining, or allegations that only a few Service Providers from certain formations are being preferred to the exclusion of others have been made. The Board has to act in the best interest of the Company at all times in keeping with its fiduciary duty.

On the allegations of the abuse of authority’s corporate social investment, the entity has a role to ensure that it uplifts and plough back to the communities in which it is operating. This has always been done in keeping with the best international corporate social investment standards and also to ensure that that the entity is able to change the lives of the people beyond just providing water.

The reality is that Mhlathuze Water authority cannot be an island of operational efficiency and also solely focus on the bottom line in a sea of a community being plagued by many social ills. This becomes even more important when one considers the fact that the Mhlathuze Water authority operates in areas which are poverty stricken and have a huge service delivery backlog.

1. Strategic stakeholders and CSI

If for instance you considered the complexity of land ownership and tenure in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, you would understand that any business or entity whose operations are land-based, like the Water Boards, such entities would need to have strategies and instruments to ensure that it assists communities to realise their potential.

2.  Utility’s CSI focus areas

In addition, according to Mhlathuze Water’s own website, compiled by the very management, some of whom are sources, the utility’s CSI  focus is in the areas of poverty alleviation, education, arts and culture, life skills, sports and the environment. The sponsorship for the 30 year celebration of Umhlanga Reed Dance falls squarely in the area of culture and therefore not out of line with the utility’s CSI programme.

While the focus areas of CSI include poverty alleviation, they are by no means exclusive to this. The women leadership conference falls squarely in the area of life skills for women leaders. This conference was meant to benefit women leaders including the rural and those without formal education who need life skills and COGTA is uMhlathuze Water’s partner since 2008.

3.  Travel policy

The travel arrangements for the chairperson are done in accordance with the Mhlathuze Water policies and the entity is subjected to all relevant audits processes and oversight from the board to the Auditor General etc.

Management

We as Management indeed have the prerogative delegated by the Board to exercise our duties and to manage the operations of MWater without undue interference of the board. Where any member of the board receives requests (by virtue of being faces of the water utility) from stakeholders that falls within the spheres of management, such request are dealt with by management, as is always norm. Where management is indecisive and such indecisiveness exposes the Utility to adverse consequences then the board has a duty to act.

We cannot yet deal with specific allegations in this regard, since some involve a case before the court, suffice to say that the recent court case involving MWater where certain allegations were made against the Chairperson were dismissed by the judge as “vexatious, scandalous” and irrelevant. In good time such will be responded to in time.

Statement issued by Acting Chief Executive Mthokozisi Duze, Mhlathuze Water Authority, 28 January 2017