The resignation, albeit late, by Dondo Mogajane, the former National Treasury director-general, from all public and private sector boards is to be welcomed.
On Monday, Mogajane, CEO of the Moti Group, announced that he would be stepping down from all boards, including the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), after being implicated in an affidavit by fraud convict Tshifhiwa Matodzi for allegedly receiving a R1m bribe from the collapsed VBS Mutual Bank.
Though not charged or convicted, Mogajane’s continued stay at GEPF, which he chaired, was untenable. He should have stepped down soon after the whiff of scandal emerged. But he lives in a country where it is rare for senior public officials to fall on their sword or step aside when facing serious sleaze accusations. It is therefore understandable that he took this long to come to such an obvious decision.
He is not alone to blame. The government, the guarantor of the civil servants pensions, ought to have asked him much earlier to leave or, at least, step aside while he focused on clearing his name.
Last week, finance minister Enoch Godongwana acknowledged that he had taken too long to make a decision regarding the reputational risk to the GEPF. Which, in effect, suggests that Mogajane’s decision to step down wasn’t entirely his own. This is backed up by the casual nature he approached his resignation in the video message. Still, this is better than nothing.
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