The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) is perturbed by reports associated with the chairperson of the Arts and Culture Portfolio Committee, Ms Thandile Sunduza, that Board members hid in a kitchen to avoid facing the committee.
Professor Sihawu Ngubane said that it is unfortunate that the chairperson of the committee chose to release such damning and misleading information that is detrimental to the reputation of PanSALB without any attempt to verify it first. In its meeting of 31 August 2011 with PanSALB, the committee requested in its invitation that the chairperson, deputy chairperson and senior executives appear before it and not the whole Board, as it was later stated in the media.
The reason that Board members flew to Cape Town was that the Director-General (DG) of the Department of Arts and Culture, Mr Sibusiso Xabi, requested to meet with them. On their arrival, Board members were made to wait for the DG, who was still in a meeting with the committee.
“This is the reason that we are perplexed by these statements. I would like to state that there was never any invitation from the committee and that it came as a surprise to us to hear such reports being made in the media without first giving the Board an opportunity to answer,” said Professor Ngubane.
Moreover, new allegations have been made that PanSALB spent R21 million on legal fees. “For the record, I want to emphasise that the figure that is being suggested is outrageous, to say the least, as PanSALB cannot afford to spend such an amount on its meagre budget of R56 million. It must also be understood that one of the functions of PanSALB is to litigate against language rights violators, and that will require legal counsel and will have costs implications.”
The Board is convinced that these and many other allegations emanate from employees who do not want to be held accountable for their transgressions and believe that they are beyond reproach.
“As the Board, we cannot allow the values and principles of the organisation to be compromised; the staff was advised to follow rules and regulations. Therefore, action will be taken against any transgressors,” said Professor Ngubane.
We have requested to meet Ms Sunduza on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 before appearing before the committee to clear up such matters, but we understand that the committee chairperson cannot fit us into her schedule due to the short notice that we gave.
It is unfortunate that the committee has allowed itself to be misled and that it went on to make statements that are damaging to the reputation of PanSALB without verifying these with the Board; hence, we think that a meeting with Ms Sunduza will help clear the air. Professor Ngubane indicated that the Board is looking forward to such a meeting taking place in the near future.
“There is a clear indication that there is a campaign to discredit the organisation despite the unqualified audit report that it received from the South African Auditor-General for the past three years and other investigations that were conducted by Nkoki Forensic Investigators and Price Waterhouse Coopers, which at no stage found corruption. Therefore, it’s very saddening to now hear accusations that the organisation is corrupt and that no work is taking place,” said Professor Ngubane.
Board denies allegations that its members hid in a kitchen to avoid the Arts and Culture committee
