Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife presented its turnaround strategy to the media in Durban on Wednesday. Acting CEO, Dr David Mabunda and Chairperson, Comfort Ngidi, addressed the challenges and allegations over mismanagement that have been plaguing the conservation organisation for the past year. They included under-expenditure, gross lack of maintenance and questions surrounding why former CEO, Dr Bandile Mkhize, received a golden handshake. 

Mabunda said the turnaround strategy, which he introduced in December 2014, mainly focused on five specific points: (1) creating a stable organisation; (2) being relevant; (3) strengthening stewardship; (4) growing the organisation’s revenue; and (5) improving rhino security.

Maintaining stability within the organisation, the first pillar of the turnaround strategy, is the main reason why Ezemvelo opted to give suspended CEO Mkhize a golden handshake. Ngidi explained that, although Ezemvelo had a strong case against Mkhize, there was no guarantee that a court case would have been successful and it was also unsure when a court case would have been resolved. Instead of paying the salaries of two CEOs – the acting CEO and the suspended CEO – during this time, Ezemvelo opted to reach an agreement with Mkhize and agreed to pay Mkhize one year’s salary.

According to Ngidi, Mkhize had considerably raised senior officials’ salaries, giving them promotions and changing their roles within the company during his tenure. He had presented this to the Ezemvelo Board saying there were sufficient funds to warrant these increases. This was despite the Department of Human Resources and the CFO advising him to the contrary. “Dr Mkhize wilfully misled the board,” said Ngidi.

A task team has since recommended that the salaries would be reversed and all employees would return to their original posts. Ezemvelo has followed this advice and has reversed the salary increases. Ezemvelo had also asked officials to give back the increases that had already been paid out, which they have done, according to Ngidi.

“2014 was a year of dark clouds for Ezemvelo. A year we would like to forget,” said Mabunda, adding that the stigma of the mistakes made during the year still lingered. He said, as a result of the upheaval during 2014, Ezemvelo had been unable to spend R213m (€13m) of its budget last year, the majority of which had been budgeted for the construction and repair of roads within protected areas.

The state of the roads in the Hluhluwe iMfolozi National Park especially had received attention, with Ezemvelo coming under fire for not spending the necessary funds. Mabunda said the appointed contractors had performed below the accepted standard, leaving Ezemvelo to re-advertise for new tenders. He added, however, that the area was now a ‘beehive’ of activity with 45% of roads already rehabilitated. The project should be completed by March next year.

Mabunda said 2014 was behind the organisation and it was now moving forward. The organisation is in a more stable position than before and the Auditor General has indicated that Ezemvelo’s financial performance and cash flows are in accordance with the standards and requirements. “This is the second time in succession that the entity has received an unqualified report from the Auditor General,” he said.

According to Mabunda, a lot has been done to honour the five-point turnaround strategy. Stability has been returned and more than 300 employees who were on fixed-term contracts have been made permanent staff.  Employees are now motivated and taking initiatives again.

Senior managers will, from now on, be on performance contracts. “This has never been done at Ezemvelo before. We’ll start measuring every manager in terms of output and what they’ve done. We’ll measure performance. There is no more place to hide,” said Mabunda.

Rhino protection is also at the top of the agenda for Ezemvelo. The organisation is working in close collaboration with law enforcement agencies and tracking and rapid-response poaching alert technology is currently being tested in KZN. Mabunda admitted that the tender process to acquire a helicopter service provider had been unsuccessful, as those who tendered did not meet the requirements. Ezemvelo is now looking into acquiring its own helicopters.

Lastly, relations with the communities, especially those surrounding the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park have been addressed. Ezemvelo has sat down with the communities and agreed on a roadmap on how benefits are going to accrue for them and to identify business opportunities.