Mbabane: The select committee probing Eswatini TV has recommended that there is a need for a total overhaul of senior management, especially of the Corporate Affairs Manager (CAM) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the station.
This recommendation is contained in the report that was compiled by the Select Committee that was probing serious allegations of corruption, nepotism and maladministration reported to be rampant at the Eswatini Television Authority (ETVA) and Eswatini Broadcasting and information Services (EBIS). The Gege MP Musa Kunene led committee says these aforementioned executive members (CEO Bongani Sigcokosiyancinca and CAM Mcedisi Mayisela) should be removed from the station because most of the challenges the station is facing emanate directly from the management crisis created by these two at the station.
Other Recommendations
- “The committee further recommended that there should be strengthening of the financial department and financial systems to manage expenditure.
- The committee recommends an immediate review of all cases of every staff member that has been dismissed during the tenure of the current management;
- The station should reconsider its Asset Disposal Policy (ADP), if they have one or promptly put one in place if they do not. The purpose of this policy is to provide the means for the disposal of non-fixed assets to get the best possible outcome and to gain a good net return on the company’s assets;
- The hierarchy of authority and communication should be clear at the station to maintain managerial integrity and for the sustained success of the institution;
- The station should adhere to the recruitment and selection policy which lays down the guiding principles regarding how the station is expected to conduct the recruitment process so that suitable candidates are hired based not on relationships but on merit and the work ethics and business goals that the station seeks to serve;
- The station’s vehicle/ fleet management policy must be reinforced to avoid the abuse and/or theft of the station’s vehicles, and outline the requirements and basic rules a staff member must follow when using the vehicles and disciplinary action for misusing vehicles;
- The station needs to immediately put in place a Workplace Romance Policy since it is clear that the indiscriminate affairs that are sprouting all over the place are not serving the business goals of the station. Employees who engage in romantic or sexual relationships run the risk of concerns of favouritism, bias, ethics and conflict of interest. This is more so if one individual has influence or control over the other’s conditions of employment such as junior staff and a manager or CEO;
- The car allowance being claimed by the CEO and CFO must stop with immediate effect because this is tantamount
- The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Eswatini Police Car Theft Unit should investigate the manner of the disappearance of the vehicle that was stolen in South Africa whilst in the care of the CEO; The CEO has reached the age of retirement and must either resign or be retrenched in the public interest, whichever is more practicable;
- The CAM should be retrenched in the public interest or disciplined for the maladministration he has caused at the station;
- The Minister for ICT and the current Board at ETVA should implement this report and the Minister should appraise Parliament on progress thereon during Quarterly Report Debates until all the recommendations have been implemented in full.”
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