Mail & Guardian reports that wide-ranging retrenchments at the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) have been put on hold — at least until after the appointment of a new board by land reform minister Thoko Didiza in January.
The interim board appointed by Didiza in August apparently countermanded the decision by its chairperson, Jerome Ngwenya, earlier this year to retrench staff. It has placed the process on hold until a permanent board is appointed. Ngwenya, who is King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu’s nominee to the ITB, had issued staff with Section 189 notices after the department held back R22-million in funding over the ITB’s failure to submit its annual report and financial statements. Among those identified for retrenchment were the ITB’s chief executive officer, Lucas Mkhwanazi, chief financial officer Amin Mia and staff in its head office in Pietermaritzburg, and in its Ulundi satellite office. Didiza last month appointed a forensic audit into the ITB, which administers nearly three million hectares of KwaZulu-Natal land that falls under tribal control on behalf of the monarch. Staff members said last week they were relieved the staff cuts had been shelved. One staff member commented: “The whole process was being handled very roughly. We were being told to take voluntary packages, or we would be retrenched. They were rushing us to sign. Now they have stopped. We don’t know what will happen when the new board comes in.” Apparently, nobody signed or took packages.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Paddy Harper at Mail & Guardian
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