After months of playing cat and mouse with the authorities, Mduduzi Vilikazi was suspended as CEO of the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA).
Since January 2024, contractors have been busy doing illegal upgrades and construction work at various geosites at the world-renowned Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains World Heritage Site.
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Lowvelder earlier reported how private landowners, as well as Sappi and the City of Mbombela, had tried to stop construction work at lookout points on the R40 towards Bulembu and the Josefsdal Border Post to eSwatini.
MPUMALANGA TOURISM AND PARKS AGENCY RECIEVED A CLEAN AUDIT OPINION FROM THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF SOUTH AFRICA pic.twitter.com/ZkQFa7fDUM
— Mpumalanga Tourism (@Mtpatourism) August 3, 2024
According to some documentation seen by Lowvelder, the work was authorised by Vilikazi, despite him not having official permission to do so. The landowners, out of desperation, approached the Mpumalanga High Court for an urgent interdict to stop the contractors who were destroying 340 million-year-old rock formations.
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The application, however, was unsuccessful. The sitting judge found that the application was not urgent.
Neither Vilikazi nor the MTPA adhered to instructions from the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) or the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDT) to stop construction. Barbara Creecy, the former minister of the DFFE, instructed the Mpumalanga government to act against the MTPA and its CEO. Despite this, the MTPA’s board failed to act on the matter.
MPUMALANGA TOURISM AND PARKS AGENCY (MTPA) CEO MR.MDUDUZI VILAKAZI PLACED ON PRECAUTIONARY SUSPENSION pic.twitter.com/zVgjMPPvB2
— Mpumalanga Tourism (@Mtpatourism) August 6, 2024
Only after the South African Heritage Resource Agency recently used its authority and instructed that construction work should be ceased, did the MTPA tell its contractor to withdraw from the site.
On Monday morning, August 5, when Vilikazi arrived at his office, Victor Mashego, the MTPA’s board chairperson, served him a suspension letter, of which Lowvelder has a copy. In it, Mashego wrote that an investigation of serious maladministration, mismanagement and/or corruption is being done.
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Vilikazi had to hand over his electronic equipment as well as any official MTPA documentation in his possession before he was marched out of the MTPA’s complex. Ironically, on Tuesday, August 6, barely 24 hours after his suspension, the contractors were back on the heritage site.
The workers said they were instructed to return. Vilikazi denied that he had given these instructions.
“I am at home playing with my kids and have no authority over what happens at the MTPA during my suspension,” he told Lowvelder.
In the meantime, Vilikazi took to social media platforms in an apparent effort to defend himself.
“These are wild allegations, and the board hasn’t done its spadework before making the decision.”
He said most of the allegations against him have to do with the awarding of tenders, mainly being accusations of him helping his cronies to get tenders.
Silence Mhlaba, the spokesperson for the DEDT, under which the MTPA resorts, did not want to respond and referred enquiries to the MTPA.
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