NWHC CEO’s contract extension sparks backlash

The North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements has questioned the 2-year contract extension of the North West Housing Corporation (NWHC) CEO, Sello Mogodiri.

The provincial Department of Human Settlements informed the committee during an oversight meeting that Mogodiri’s contract, which ended in July, has been extended.

Mogodiri was appointed as the CEO in August 2020 and has been lashed by different political parties in the province for his controversial Smart and Mega City R74.3 billion project plan.

The bone of contention was the 2-year contract extension of  Mogodiri.

The extension comes amidst the portfolio committee’s call for the suspension of the CEO and the halt of all Mega and Smart City projects.

After a failed R250 000 event at Lokaleng village, outside Mahikeng and allegations that entity was pushing forward with developments on disputed land.

Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements Kgalalelo Makgokgowa and Democratic Alliance (DA) member of the legislature CJ Steyl voiced their concerns.

“I was worried about the legal implications because under normal circumstances you were to extend for someone who’s been a substantive CEO, you would usually go for six months for just preparation, for the handover to the next incumbent. Two years seems a bit steep,” says  Makgokgowa.

“Quite shocking news considering the road we’ve been walking with the housing corporation over the last year. One would have considered that an extension can be made on six months, three months. You know when a contract comes to its natural end, there is no legal requirements to justify extending that contract or not because there’s a start date, there’s an end date,” says Steyl.

Steyl accused the entity of tying the CEO to projects

“The other issue that was raised is that the CEO had initiated certain projects and that it would be unfair or disadvantages to the entity should the contract be ended and that would negatively impact those projects. That in itself chairperson is a serious consequence that a project of an entity is tied to, directly linked, its success and the outcome, to the accounting officer,” he says.

MEC for Human Settlements Gaoage Molapisi defended their decision to extend the contract

“I want honorouble Steyl to tell me which law says that you must bring issues if the advert or whatever before this committee. Where in law does it say that before we process we must come before this committee. There’s no such a thing, so let’s not make wrong assumptions here. Now, you say there’s a house resolution to discipline and suspend the CEO, where’re that? So you can’t question us when we’ve taken a decision to extend for two years, because you would have preferred us to extend for six months,” she says.

The interim board’s term of office is coming to an end next month.

Board Chairperson Dr Manketse Tlhape argues that they needed Mogodiri, who was initially running the ship alone.

“The interim board came in April and we found the contract of the CEO was just about to expire. It was expiring 13th July. So, as in when we trying to find our feet, we had the Auditor-General also coming for audits. We did not have any much information about the institution. We looked for the legal advice also in that regard to say how do we deal with that because we had no option but to extend. Remember that as in entity we did not have a board for two years. He was the accounting officer he was the accounting authority,” she says.

MEC Molapisi says that the CEO’s departure would have collapsed the entity

“There has been some bit of instability in the entity itself. The term of the CEO was coming to an end or came to an end in July. We have extended contract of the CEO. The CEO had requested initially that the contract be extended for a period of five years. The MEC could not approve this. There are quite a number of things that were are busy dealing with and had you allowed the departure of the CEO. The coming to an end of the interim board we were going to collapse the entity and all the initiative that we have put in place,” says Molapisi.

The DA alleges that the contract was extended without considering the CEO’s concerning performance at the NWHC.

“It might be that you can consider extending a contract based on exception of good performance but then the submissions from the chairperson was that they couldn’t assess because performance appraisal has been done they couldn’t assess the performance of the CEO. How is that justification because the reports that we’ve been receiving in this committee is that there wasn’t any performance?” asks Steyl.

The DA, which has vehemently rejected the extension, says it will request a full report in the legislature.