Durban — While KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube is scheduled to deliver her maiden State of the Province Address (Sopa) today (Friday), frustrated staff working at the embattled KwaZulu-Natal Growth Fund Trust have appealed for a complete overhaul of the institution’s management structure.
In a leaked draft letter to Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Siboniso Duma, which was shown to the Daily News, fed up staff members made an impassioned plea for him and the premier to clean up the rot at the institution and urgently appoint a CEO with knowledge of investment, industry experience, governance, human resources and marketing.
The staff members who reached out to the Daily News have asked to remain hidden for fear of losing their jobs.
In the letter, the staff added that in order for the KZN Growth Fund Trust to succeed in its mandate, it needed an urgent change of management, which included a CEO who would not be afraid to make decisions.
The trust, which was established to assist black industrialists, falls under Duma’s department and has been embroiled in a number of scandals and controversies relating to its executives, who were alleged to have tried to solicit bribes from applicants.
According to staff, the CEO’s position has been vacant for two years, leaving operations at the institution in limbo.
The paper understands that Khaya Ngqaka is acting in the position.
In the draft letter, the staff pointed to the indefinite suspension of senior managers whom they said were milking the fund dry since a lot of money was being paid to officials sitting at home doing nothing.
Among the seniors still on suspension, according to the staff, were former acting CEO and CFO Lwazi Zondi, who was suspended in December last year.
Although it was not clear why Zondi was suspended, insiders at the trust with intricate knowledge of the problems said his suspension may be related to the mismanagement of funds and clients who had applied for funding.
Zondi refused to be drawn on his suspension, saying he was not allowed to discuss work matters with the media.
The staff also complained about the suspension of general legal counsel Urvashi Ojageer and said out of the three legal team employees only one was left, which has forced the organisation to outsource legal work at a cost.
According to the staff, the legal team was created to save legal costs. However, the fund is embroiled in a number of legal battles where it is being sued for amounts in the region of R150 million for mismanagement, unethical behaviour and maladministration by some of its current and former board members.
“The organisation is being run by the acting CEO, company secretary and HR manager, but concerns cannot be raised with them as they act as one person against the rest of the employees at the trust. The HR manager has been very slow in executing the tasks on the HR work plan to improve the state of affairs, and whenever she does act it is in the best interest of the trust and not the employees,” said the staff.
They further accused the trust secretary of not understanding her role and treating the staff badly. Furthermore, the staff complained of abuse and stated that they were sometimes being forced to work unreasonably outside their normal operational hours and feared victimisation if they did not comply.
“Because of the lack of knowledge and experience, the ‘new executive’ – which is the acting CEO, HR manager and trust secretary – have attempted to create additional posts for people to do their work as they are not able to execute their duties effectively. The board has approved the temporary post for a manager to assist the acting CEO while a similar arrangement is being made to find a person who will ‘do the work’ of the Trust secretary.
“For the KGFT to succeed on its mandate, it needs an urgent change of management and if the intervention was not made the reporting on job creation will look very bad,” concluded the letter.
According to information obtained by the paper, officials that are milking the trust while sitting at home because of suspensions include chief risk officer Nkosinathi Nkosi, who was said to be earning R1.6 million in 2019; legal counsel Urvashi Ojageer, who earns approximately R1.3m; and executive assistant Ayesha Asmal, who was said to be earning around R1.8m.
The trust has also apparently not funded any projects since 2020, yet the taxpayers have been footing their salary bills.
Attempts to solicit comment from Duma’s office were unsuccessful but it had previously said it would not interfere with the running of the trust, a move which insiders have said has politically neutralised and left board chairperson Silas Hlophe “a sitting duck”.
In correspondence seen by the Daily News, Dube-Ncube had also side-stepped calls for her intervention when she was asked by dairy product company Goodlife Foods, citing the sub judice policy as the matter with the trust was in court.
Goodlife is currently suing the fund in the Durban High Court after it claimed that its approved R72m funding was “blocked” when the company refused to entertain an alleged attempt to solicit a bribe by one of the fund’s board members.
In her State of the Province Address, the premier is expected to touch on the performance of public entities like the KZN Growth Fund, which the provincial government had established to grow the economy, industrialise and create jobs.
In its response through its PR company, the trust confirmed the suspension of its CFO following an investigation but refused to give details of what he was being investigated for.
The trust further stated that since taking on its duties as the KZN Growth Fund board of trustees in 2022, there has been a tightening of systems and procedures aimed at ensuring all staff employed by the fund follow a strict integrity code. Where it has been deemed necessary and following an extensive investigation, any staff found wanting in fulfilling the fund’s code of integrity have been placed on suspension.
On the staff calling for dissolution of management, the trust said the board of trustees has made efforts to strengthen its relationships, including its engagement with staff at the end of 2022.
It added that there were structures in place to allow staff to share their grievances and at no point during these engagements has any staff member said that they were unhappy with the management of the fund, or that they were calling for the dissolution of the management team.
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