Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana moved swiftly to quell worries about the loss of key staff at Treasury following its announcement that experienced technocrat Dondo Mogajane will step down as director general in June when his contract expires.
Mogajane, a 23-year veteran of the department, is the latest senior staff member to leave the Treasury, which lost its head of assets and liability management Tshepiso Maohloli in 2021 and told parliament in February that it had advertised nearly 70 strategic posts.
"No organization would not be concerned about the loss of skills, Treasury is no exception. But we have not reached a crisis point at the moment," Godongwana told Business Day. "There’s a depth of skills at the Treasury, I don’t think we have reached a crisis point."
He cited government process and budget cuts across all departments as the primary reasons for Treasury to struggle to fill some of the positions.
Godongwana, who took up the role in August 2021 Cabinet reshuffle, said Mogajane had already made up his mind that he would leave at the end of his contract when he joined the Treasury.
"So I spent the last eight months trying to persuade him to stay. It is a pity I have not been successful," he said.
Mogajane, who declined to disclose his plans other than they involved a private enterprise, took up the role in 2017 when fears were mounting Treasury was the next target for the state capture project but his appointment reassured staff and investors as it brought in a well-known bureaucrat that would push back against the corruption cancer that corroded almost every layer of government.
In an interview with Business Day, Dondo, whose last day on the job is June 7, said
he is happy to leave the Treasury at a time when the SA economy is moving in a positive direction and public finances are recovering from the Covid-19 induced shock.
“When the [finance] minister [Enoch Godongwana] came in August [2021], we briefed him on the challenges facing the National Treasury. These challenges were also outlined in the MTBPS [medium-term budget policy statement] and I think we have done well since then,” said the 53-year University of Durban Westville graduate.
“And this is also captured in the change in outlook by Moody’s Investors Service last week,” Mogajane added, referring to the ratings agency changing its outlook on SA’s debt to stable from negative due to an improvement in the country’s fiscal position as the government sticks to its debt consolidation plans and the country benefits from higher commodity prices.
The past few years had been very stressful, “with the ups and downs, the Covid-19 pandemic and the downgrades along the way”, Mogajane said. “It hasn’t been easy. The economy was not doing well, and we had to find ways to navigate that. The stress, pressures and the performance of the economy have been extreme.”
Of Mogajane’s 23 years at the Treasury, the last five were as director-general. Under his leadership, it successfully navigated unprecedented challenges including holding the line on debt stabilisation and fiscal consolidation. It also steered government finances through the ravages of the pandemic.
Regarding his replacement, Mogajane said the department has a pool of competent people, and while it has a number of vacancies it remains the employer of choice.
Ongoing challenges at the Treasury include improving its cash management system the integration of its finance management system so that it can be on the same level as the private sector, he said.
Finalisation of the public procurement bill is critical, Mogajane said. Procurement by all organs of state remains at a standstill pending the outcome of an urgent application to the Constitutional Court by Godongwana for clarity regarding the suspension of procurement regulations.
Mfuneko Toyana, Godongwana’s spokesperson, said the recruitment process for Mogajane’s successor has already commenced.
Additional reporting by Nico Gous
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