The swine will never pull their snouts from the trough.
Nkululeko Poya admitted to spying on a journalist and his former colleagues — now he’s been appointed to the board of a parastatal
mg.co.za
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) is the state company mandated to provide sustainable energy security solutions for South Africa. Subsidiaries under its oversight include coal mining company African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation, iGas, the Petroleum Association of South Africa, PetroSA and the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF).
Like many other state owned companies, CEF is said to be in clean-up mode — PetroSA and the SFF alone have lost billions of rands to chronic mismanagement, bad investments and corruption.
But the CEF is under new management.
Cabinet recently ratified the appointment of a new board of directors, who were submitted by the fund’s government shareholder represented by Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.
The inclusion of former Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) chief executive officer Nkululeko Poya to the board has however raised questions about how exactly these appointments are made, and whether any security checks or vetting are conducted on proposed directors.
Poya is currently the subject of at least two criminal investigations related to maladministration and corruption, as well as unlawful surveillance and cellphone interception of his fellow board members, as well as Mail & Guardian journalist Athandiwe Saba.
He procured the services of a private investigator who was able to intercept the communication of his former board colleagues at the RSR, including Masindi Tshamunwe and Saba, a journalist
who had been reporting on RSR at the time.
Tshamunwe is reportedly one of the board members who attempted to reign in Poya after allegations of impropriety emerged against him in 2016.
He said the RSR learnt that Poya had spied on some board members after they pushed back against his usage of unauthorised legal opinions and forensic investigations to legitimise or conceal reports of maladministration.
“I also lodged two complaints against Poya to the public protector [PP] in 2014 and 2016. When I requested an update from the PP office I was told the docket is missing, and I can confirm that it’s now six years and nothing came forth from the PP’s office regarding the three investigations against Poya,” said Tshamunwe.
“He brought RSR to its knees … We cannot have a person of his calibre providing oversight over executives when he does not respect corporate governance,” he added.
Saba is similarly dismayed by Poya’s appointment to the CEF board.
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