Simon Nare
Suspended Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency chief executive officer Mduduzi Vilakazi is crying foul after being slapped with a precautionary suspension letter following allegations of misconduct.
Vilakazi was suspended earlier this week for misconduct but he maintains the move was a witch-hunt after years of tightening the screws on the entity’s purse which angered many.
In a terse statement, the board of directors did not specify the nature of misconduct and spokesman Sphiwe Shungube told Inside Travel that he was not at liberty to reveal details as this was a matter between employer and employee.
The statement read: “The Board of Directors of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency has placed the CEO of the entity Mr Mduduzi Vilakazi on precautionary suspension pending an investigation into alleged misconduct.
“The Board has in the meantime appointed Mr Justus Mohlala as acting CEO of the entity until the investigation is concluded.”
Shungube said the agency will only release more details of the misconduct once the investigation has been completed but stressed that Vilakazi has not been charged as this was just precautionary suspension.
“As you know this is an employee and employer matter. We are just conducting an investigation. It’s not like the CEO has been charged. So, we can not divulge more information whatsoever,” Shungube said.
Vilakazi on the other told Inside Travel that the allegations as put to him were at best very vague and described them as just rumours.
“They are all gossip. Remember there is no charge sheet to say I am suspended because of this allegation. They just wrote to me (to say) that it is about Barberton Makonjwa Mountain Heritage Site and mismanagement. I don’t know what is mismanagement and maladministration there. I don’t know.
“They didn’t raise any issue with me. That’s vague because mismanagement should say you have mismanaged funds or you have mismanaged human resources or you have mismanaged whatever,” he said.
Vilakazi said citing the heritage site was bizarre because the site doesn’t operate in isolation but as part of the agency. He added that at the site, it’s only the mountain and the views and questioned what could possibly be managed at the site.
He believes that the move is a way of getting rid of him so they can get to do what they have been meaning to do since was appointed to the position in 2022. He claimed that since his appointment some members of the board wanted him out.
“The people on the board since 2022 have wished me out. That wish is still there. They are unable to do what they want to do there because we have put in internal proper control. We are doing proper financial management and there is no space for them to do willy-nilly as they wish,” he said.
Vilakazi further said the move came at the back of a clean audit and propelled the agency to the second spot after Gauteng for wooing international tourists in the province. He boasted that he had achieved this feat ahead of the Western Cape which has direct international flights while Mpumalanga has a tiny airport.
Just last week, the agency announced a third successive clean audit and stressed that this was confirmation that the agency had followed all laws and regulations in its operations.
“It further gives the public an assurance that the public purse has been used for its purpose,” it said at the time.
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