Minister of Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu has dismissed the board of Umgeni Water in KwaZulu-Natal.
On Tuesday, Sisulu announced the appointment of an 11-member Interim Board at Umgeni Water pending the finalisation of the full-time appointments. Sisulu dissolved the Umgeni Water board on July 31, claiming its members had been appointed irregularly by her predecessor, Gugile Nkwinti, who had extended their term by four years in May last year. Umgeni Water is the second largest water board in the country with an annual turnover of more than R2.4 billion and a 5 Capital Expenditure budget of more than R7 billion. It has consistently been achieving excellent financial and non-financial performances, to an extent that it has successfully been achieving “Clean Audit Reports” annually from the Office of the Auditor-General. “We are confident that the interim Board will conduct its business to oversee Umgeni Water in the best interests of its clients especially with regards to sound governance and stability of the utility”, said Minister Sisuluin a satement. The organisation’s performance will be monitored and overseen by various mechanisms, including committees of the Board and an independently-chaired Ethics Committee.There will also be regular Umgeni Water stakeholder engagements that assess compliance to contractual obligations and quarterly reporting to the Executive Authority.
IOL reports that the axed board members were served letters on Monday, informing them of the termination of their appointments. In the letter, Sisulu is said to have apologised “for the incorrect process that was followed when you were appointed as an ordinary member of the board of Umgeni Water”. All appointments of the boards have to be approved by the Cabinet, which according to Sisulu, did not happen in this case. “In order to regularise the process, I have decided to appoint an interim board to ensure that proper processes are followed in appointing a permanent board,” she is said to have stated in the letter. Earlier this year, Sisulu placed two other water entities — the Amatola Water Board in the Eastern Cape and Lepelle Northern Water in Limpopo — under administration. Both boards are being f investigated by the Special Investigation Unit.
