Africa-Press – Eswatini. The exercise of recruiting a chief executive officer of Eswatini TV was done twice last year by different consultants and a third one as suggested by Members of Parliament last week, would cost the broadcaster nearly E1 million.
The position of CEO for the national TV station was left vacant after the late former CEO Bongani Austin Sigcokosiyancinca Dlamini’s term ended in January 2021.
According to the Eswatini Television Authority (ESTVA) Board, the first recruitment exercise of the CEO was done early last year by Kobla Quashie Consultants, and was completed sometime in May.
However, the candidate who was eventually recommended to the ministry was not appointed. According to the Board Chair Prince Sicunusa, the reason that the ministry brought forward for not approving the recommended candidate was that Members of Parliament had levelled daunting allegations against the prospective candidate.
“The ministry said the candidate could not be approved since MPs had after their probe raised a query about the candidate. Though we are always told that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, the ministry did not consider the person,” he said.
The chairman stated that they then had to re-advertise the post of the CEO soon thereafter, and this time around SAMKHO had to be appointed for the exercise. The consultant completed its task sometime in September last year, and the Board reported to have made recommendations and submitted all the paperwork to the ministry for approval.
The chairman revealed that the person they recommended the second time was different from the previous one, and hoped the ministry would approve him/her.
Recommend
“Our duty is to recommend, we have done our part we recommended someone in October last year and now it is upon the ministry to approve,” he said. Since Eswatini Television Authority is a Category A public enterprise under the Ministry of Information Communications Technology (ICT), Members of Parliament two weeks ago, during the budget debate, wanted to know why the ministry had not hired a CEO at the station and suggested that the ministry should engage a consultant for the recruitment of the CEO.
The chairperson, on the other hand, stated that this would mean STVA will have to part with another over E200 000 for an exercise that they had done twice.
He stated that since the expiry contract of the late former CEO, the Board had to appoint different officers on acting basis for five months each and the break before the elapse of the six months acting period while the consultants were carrying out the recruitment process. He said such prevented continuity and a setback in the success of the parastatal, as several issues required a substantive CEO.
“Such include the turnaround strategy that would address the cash flow challenges faced by the station, which one partly due to the decrease of the subvention. We would also need to carry out a board induction with the CEO and there are international and local meetings that ought to be attended by the CEO,” he said.
According to the advert that was released by Eswatini Television Authority when seeking the suitable candidate, the chief executive officer should be a dynamic leader, who will be responsible for the overall strategic direction and transformation of the organisation towards international standards.
The Minister of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Princess Sikhanyiso, on the other hand when responding to MPs during the Portfolio Committee debate of her ministry, said they were currently looking into a consultant that would help them find a perfect candidate for the job. She stated that candidates they found turned out not to be suitable for the job, thus the ministry was going to find a consultant to help them find the perfect candidate.
“The selection of the CEO fits the very complaints of the people and it was not going to assists us in any-way, hence that process had to be undertaken again.
“We have taken the advice given by Ndzingeni MP to utilise the services of a consultant in identifying a CEO and we are not sure how long the process will take,” she stated at the time. Responding to a questionnaire from this publication, the ministry’s mouth-piece Gugu Nkambule said the process of recruiting the CEO was on-going.
“The process of appointing a new CEO for the authority is in progress. The ministry is awaiting the finalisation of the recruitment process and the recommendation of the Board of Directors,” she said.
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