Africa-Press – South-Africa. The City of Johannesburg has thrown its support behind Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) CEO Tshepo Mahanuke amid questions over his qualifications.
Daily Maverick reported that Mahanuke claimed to have a degree that doesn’t exist.
The publication reported that the honorary doctorate from Trinity International University of Ambassadors in the United States can be bought for a small “support honorarium”. It also reported that Mahanuke’s resumé and CV state that he has a master’s degree in “competitive intelligence” from ACI College, Harvard Business School. However, this degree is reportedly not offered at Harvard and ACI is a separate college.
His resumé reportedly states that he received an “undergraduate engineering degree from the Vaal University of Technology (VUT)”, but he holds a diploma after completing an engineering technician course.
On Monday, Mayor Mpho Phalatse called for an investigation into the allegations and said she had requested a full report from MMC for transport, Funzela Ngobeni, and the chairperson of the JRA board, Thabo Motloung.
Ngobeni said the allegations have the “potential to sully the good work done thus far, to bring stability to an organisation that, in recent times, has not lived up to the responsibility for which it was created”.
He said the City had taken steps to “stabilise the JRA” through key staff appointments, including the CEO appointment, for which Mahanuke “was ultimately deemed to be the successful candidate”.
Ngobeni added: “While there are challenges, we have begun to see a turnaround in the ability of the JRA to respond to queries from residents. What is clear is that due to our ageing infrastructure, the JRA and other entities of the City are required to attend to frequent service requests. Nonetheless, we remain committed to delivering equitable service delivery.”
He continued:
He said it was not true that Mahanuke had embellished his CV.
“I accept that there are conventions governing the use of a title arising from an honorary degree that may have been broken and caused concern, but equally, I accept that Mahanuke neither wilfully misled myself or the board in any way nor pretended to possess qualifications he did not earn,” Ngobeni said.
He added that the honorary degree “carried no weight in the decision to appoint him CEO of the JRA” and said he would support a reverification process to test Mahanuke’s credentials.
“It is important to restore confidence in the work that we do and the decisions we take. Any further action should be informed by the outcomes of the proposed re-verification process,” Ngobeni added.
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
