DA: Remove Tshabalala from Transnet Board

Natasha Michael: “Tshabalala has displayed outright dishonesty and must be removed from Transnet’s board."

Natasha Michael, the Democratic Alliance Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, said yesterday that she would write to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, requesting that she invoke her shareholders' powers in terms of the Companies Act, 17 of 2008 and remove Ellen Tshabalala immediately from the Transnet Board.

In her statement, Michael says "Section 71(a) of the Act empowers the minister to convene a shareholders meeting where she, as the governments representative and sole shareholder of Transnet, can pass an ordinary resolution resolving that Ellen Tshabalala be removed from the board."

Last week Tshabalala was found guilty of misconduct for lying to Parliament about her qualifications. It was determined that Tshabalala was not in possession of any of the qualifications which she claimed to have obtained from UNISA. These bogus qualifications however remain part of her bio on Transnet's website.

In view of the findings against her, Ellen Tshabalala has no place on the Transnet Board, says the DA. (Image: SABC)

Michael says "Tshabalala has displayed outright dishonesty by firstly lying about her qualifications and secondly by lying to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications' Inquiry into her qualifications. The DA has already laid charges of perjury in this regard.

"A person with questionable integrity, who faces criminal investigations and is on record lying to Parliament, should not be employed in the public service, let alone on the board of a state-owned enterprise.

"With the constant crises that plague state-owned enterprises, focus cannot be diverted from the real work that has to be done. Tshabalala has proved with her past conduct that she is divisive, deceptive and misleading," says Michael.

She says Tshabalala must be removed from the Transnet Board. The continuing scandal around Tshabalala's qualifications should not be allowed to engulf Transnet as well.