Durban — A legal showdown is looming between Umgeni Water and Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu following the minister’s decision to dissolve the board.
In a letter to the water entity’s employees, dated March 10, 2023, from Mchunu, and seen by the Daily News, the minister notified the employees that in terms of section 35 (5) of the Water Services Act No 11 of 1997, he has dissolved the board.
Mchunu then presented the names of the interim board and that of the chairperson, adding he had dissolved the old board on March 8.
The old board hit back, sending the minister a letter from its attorneys informing him that it was taking him to court to reverse his “irrational" decision.
One of the old board members, Visvin Reddy, told the Daily News on Monday that they, with other board members, have instructed attorneys to challenge the minister’s decision and would file urgent court papers tomorrow to challenge the decision.
Reddy said the board suspected that Mchunu wanted to block the board from appointing a chief executive because “he wanted to impose his own person”.
Reddy said Mchunu had, on numerous occasions, told the board that it did not matter whether it appointed a white person, but that it must make sure that the candidate was an engineer.
He said that was a clear interference with the work of the board which has the sole prerogative to hire the CEO.
Reddy said the term of the dissolved board was ending next month anyway, therefore they found it irrational for Mchunu to remove them now. It gave them suspicions that he was blocking them from finishing the process of hiring the CEO before their term ended.
“We really do not know what disaster has happened for the minister to want the board to go while its term is ending next month.
“We wrote to him on Thursday asking him to reverse his decision but he wrote back and said he stood by his decision since the act empowers him to do what he had done. We are taking him to court on Wednesday,” said Reddy.
He said the minister cited the adverse Gobodo Forensic Report findings against the board as the reason for his decision. But the minister did not even want to listen to the board’s side about the findings which the board was questioning, Reddy said.
Reddy said the board wrote to the minister responding to the report but he never replied.
Another reason the dissolved board said could be their questioning of the merger of Umgeni Water and Umhlathuze Water.
Reddy said they had asked for clarity on the merger – some of the things they wanted to know were whether the merger would increase tariffs for the people of eThekwini to subsidise Umhlathuze residents who were not paying for water.
Reddy said they would fight tooth and nail to stop Umgeni Water from turning into other state owned-enterprises such as Eskom and SAA which had failed because of political interference.
Reddy said the board was also questioning the appointment of a person from the Eastern Cape as chairperson of the interim board, saying they did not even understand who the minister consulted before appointing the interim board.
To back their claim of political interference, Reddy who is also a councillor in eThekwini, said that under their leadership Umgeni Water had received an award for being the best-run water entity in the country.
Mchunu said the reason for dissolving the board was based on governance issues which he was not willing to divulge. He refused to entertain people’s suspicions, saying he would not respond to such.
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