Then Inkomati Usuthu Catchment Agency (IUCMA) CEO and board sidelined their HR department when they hired a foreign national who did not have a work permit and whose qualifications it did not verify.
This is according to an internal report in which the HR department blames the then-CEO, Lucky Mohalaba and the board for policy breaches, including excluding it from the material part of recruitment – from shortlisting candidates and
interviews to appointment.
According to the report, which Sunday World has seen, this part of recruitment was hijacked by Mohalaba and a committee of the board.
In what is an even worse indictment of the agency, it turned a blind eye to the shortcomings of the recruitment until it was nudged by the parliamentary portfolio committee on water and sanitation to investigate the flaws.
On June 17, MPs raised concerns regarding the process the board followed in the appointment.
Only then did the agency commission an assessment of the executive’s employment file.
“During the assessment… HR noted that there was a qualified South African candidate whose credentials met the requirements of the position.
It remains unclear why, despite the expressed and advertised intention to prefer South African candidates, that objective was somehow overlooked in favour of the foreign candidate,” it reads the report co-signed by the agency’s current CEO
Mokgane Mongane and the entity’s corporate services executive advocate MB Shabangu.
The report is scathing, alleging that not only did the CEO overlook this South African, but also the qualifications of the appointed foreigner were never verified, and she did not have a work permit.
The HR report flagged other discrepancies in the recruitment of Eswatini national, whose name Sunday World is withholding, for the executive director of water resource manager role.
But instead of booting her out, the Mpumalanga-based agency is now looking at ways to legitimise the appointment, claiming she is good at her job.
“Despite the procedural and legal shortcomings identified, she has demonstrated exceptional competence, professionalism, and the capacity to lead effectively at an executive level. It is, therefore, proposed that the IUCMA be granted an opportunity to investigate possible legal compliant ways to address the shortcomings in the process and report to parliament accordingly.”
Other failures of procedure included are that the IUCMA did not prioritise a South African for the role. It also did not ensure the foreign national had a valid work permit or permanent residence before employment.
The agency also did not insert a clause requiring that she transfer skills to a South African in her contract. It also failed to verify her public sector management experience.
The report also found that the agency had prejudiced candidates when it failed to inform them that it was advertising the vacancy again. “This omission undermines the principles of transparency, fairness and equal opportunity as outlined in the recruitment and selection policy,” the report reads.
According to the HR investigation, which was supposed to have been completed before recruitment, the agency failed to verify her master’s degree in integrated water resources management from the University of Zimbabwe. This is despite the verification being “mandatory before appointment” according to Section 9.3.6 (a–f) of the agency’s recruitment policy.
She did, however, go on to obtain a PhD in environmental science in climate change vulnerability analysis in agriculture from the University of South Africa. The agency spokesperson Sylvia Machimana had not responded to our questions at the time of going to print.
