DURBAN - Umgeni Water could have a new chief executive (CEO) by the end of the month.
The chairperson of the board, Ziphozethu Gabsie Mathenjwa, addressing the media on the entity’s annual report yesterday, said the process to appoint the CEO was at an advanced stage.
Mboniseni Dlamini is the acting CEO. The entity has been without a full-time CEO for more than a
year. The former chief executive, Thami Hlongwa, resigned in October 2020.
The board had also previously faced turbulent times. It was disbanded in August 2020 by the then-minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindwe Sisulu, citing the absence of a Cabinet endorsement of the board as the reason for her decision. This board was replaced with an interim board.
It was then reconstituted in 2021 after the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled the decision to disband the board and appoint an interim board was unlawful. The Cabinet endorsed the re-appointment.
Mathenjwa said they had been able to fill many of the senior positions. They had appointed a company secretary and appointed Thami Mkhwanazi as the chief financial officer.
“We have advertised and have been successful in filling the position, we have filled other positions in the organisation that do not report to the board.
“We have started a process to headhunt the CEO, and we are expecting to get a report by April on whether that process has been successful. If it has been successful we will write to Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, on the salary of the CEO,” she said.
She added if the process of headhunting was not successful in this phase, they would continue to look for a suitable candidate.
“We are looking for an individual with the right skills. There are certain areas where we have been unwilling to compromise, for instance, on the individual’s knowledge of water.”
In presenting its performance results, the entity said it was proud of how it had performed and managed to generate revenue in an environment where it could not charge higher tariffs. It said it was able to increase its customer base by taking over the supply to some municipalities.
Mathenjwa said the institution was financially sound and people could be proud that this is “one state-owned enterprise that does not need a
bailout”.
During the presentation, the entity also touched on the issues of governance and revealed that in the 2020-21 financial year, it had incurred more than R400 million in irregular
expenditure.
Its cumulative irregular expenditure is currently R1.4 billion. Most of the irregular expenditure was incurred as the result of a failure to comply with supply chain processes.
Mkhwanazi said irregular expenditure did not mean the entity had not received any services and therefore the money was lost, but that the entity had not followed the regulations in the procurement of the service.
The entity revealed in cases of irregular expenditure, where a breach of rules or negligence had been discovered, it had implemented consequence management. It said several disciplinary cases had been concluded, and more were under way.
Looking to the future, Umgeni Water said it planned to spend close to R2 billion on different infrastructure projects in the coming year.
It would spend R225m on augmentation projects, R378m on development projects, R59m on expansion projects and about R625m on rehabilitation projects.
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