The management and finances of the leading national library and information centre of excellence in Africa and the world (the National Library of South Africa) are in such utter shambles that two prominent members of the board's finance committee have resigned in protest.
Employees tell a disturbing story of neglect and abuse at one of the prime symbols of South Africa's intellectual heritage. They tell of a chief executive who spends every possible moment travelling the world on freebies and proclaims that he is 'not an operational man'. They tell of a marketing manager who does almost no marketing, and simply disappears on an important day from his institution; of a chief financial officer who does very little financial management.
The two board members who have resigned are its former chairperson Andrew Mestern, BP South Africa's treasury manager, and Dr Martie van Deventer of the CSIR. Mestern had served on the board for five years. The two confirmed that they have written to Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan, giving reasons for their resignations, but refused to discuss the affairs of the National Library any further.
Minister Jordan's office tells noseweek that, after receiving the two resignation letters, the minister intends launching an investigation into the affairs of the NLSA.
Approached for comment on criticism made by staff at the Library, chief financial officer Khehla Moloi says the allegations could only come from “white racists” (in fact most of noseweek’s sources are not white). Says Moloi: “People who make this allegation represent the old order which subjected our people to iron rule and discrimination, but since the arrival of the new CEO, management of the NLSA has been transformed to represent the demographics of SA. There are some people who think if an institution is run by Blacks everything collapses. These sinister forces have tried unsuccessfully to sabotage the normal operation of the Library but have failed; they have now run to the media as dying horses.”HO-Moloi Khehla
In terms of the National Library of South Africa Act, the Library is controlled by a board, whose members are appointed by the Minister of Arts and Culture, from a shortlist drawn up by an advisory panel after a call for public nominations.
Its chief executive officer, known as the National Librarian, is an ex officio member of the board. Minister Pallo Jordan appointed the present board for the period 1 October 2006 to 30 September 2009.
According to the Act the board has a large degree of autonomy; it formulates the policies of the Library (in consultation with the minister); approves its budget; appoints the chief executive officer, management team and other employees; and determines the remuneration and benefits of its employees.
Yet, despite the central role envisioned for it, and a huge responsibility for ensuring the Library’s efficient functioning, the board did not meet at all between July 2007 and August 2008. (There was a meeting in December 2007, but not enough members attended to form a quorum.) Before the present board was appointed, the National Library was without a board for a full eight months.
When the board finally met in August 2008, Mestern and Van Deventer had resigned in protest. Noseweek was told that board members spent most of the meeting discussing backdating honoraria, and new cell phones and allowances for senior managers.
The new chairman of the board, Professor Gessler Moses Muxe Nkondo, is the disgraced former vice-chancellor of Venda University, who was forced to pay back money he spent on a credit card he had obtained illegally. He also lied about his PhD.
The National Library consists of two “campuses” that became one entity in 1999 – the former State Library in Pretoria and the National Library in Cape Town. The huge new R375m Pretoria library building, opened by Minister Jordan on 1 August 2008, can accommodate 1300 visitors at a time and houses two million books, with the capacity for another three-and-half million. Presently only half of the building is operational, and it is seriously understaffed.
HO-Tsebe John, former librarian at the University of the North, became the National Librarian, as the CEO is called, in 2004. “He came charging in on his shining horse, proclaiming how things were going to change,” a senior employee tells noseweek.“He told staff we were going to do great things. ‘My door is open, the buck stops with me’, he said. But that horse broke all its legs. Tsebe has become a self-important man, more interested in scoring free trips to China, Iran, Malaysia and elsewhere than in running the NLSA. He is outside of the country more than at his desk.”
Another senior employee adds: “Tsebe likes to say he is responsible for the vision and strategies and not for operational issues. We now know what that means – he hobnobs with the elite and jumps on a plane whenever he can. He has taken the concept ‘hands-off management’ to new extremes.”
Staff at both campuses of the National Library complain of the almost complete collapse of administrative structures over the past two years. Things have fallen apart to such an extent that management meetings hardly ever take place, a staff member tells noseweek. Absenteeism is rife, and an outrageous number of people at managerial level are on sick leave at any given time.
“The staff morale is at an ultimate low; people clock in and out, simply waiting for their pay cheques. One can see it in service delivery. There is a culture of fear among employees – no-one wants to make a stand: we know what Tsebe, Andrew Malotle (head of marketing) and their cabal will do if we speak out.”
Staff and library users tell of more and more books, documents and papers (some extremely valuable) simply disappearing – either stolen or misfiled (among millions of books, wrongly filing one means it goes more or less permanently missing). And the vitally important procurement department is no longer ensuring that all books published in the country are deposited with the library – researchers are increasingly having to visit university libraries to consult new works.
It’s apparently the financial mismanagement of the National Library that led to the recent resignations. One of chief financial officer Khehla Moloi’s own colleagues says that, for 2007/2008, Moloi didn’t even draw up a proper budget with new financial forecasts – he simply used the previous year’s budget and added 10%.
When the financial committee complained about his work, Moloi sent an angry email to board members and senior management saying the chairman of that committee had an axe to grind. He asked the board chairman’s “protection” from the committee and declared defiantly: “I own and drive this process.” National Librarian John Tsebe (left) and minister Pallo Jordan
The Auditor General’s report in the Annual Reports of the National Library since 2004 proves that all is not well. Each year since 2003/2004 the AG has reported that “an accounting policy addressing the classification, disclosure and valuations of the book collections has not been approved by the board.” The AG also declared that “...an audit of the book collections at the National Library revealed that books are in a poor condition and that the storage facilities utilised for book collections appear to be inadequately equipped to ensure proper preservation of book collections”.
In 2006/07 the AG declared that he couldn’t express an opinion on certain expenditure as some documentation was missing. The AG also pointed out that the National Library did not have the required level of funds to match the liability of post-retirement medical aid benefits, which amounted to R14.8m. The annual report for 2007/08, which includes the Auditor General’s report, has been given to the minister but not released for public consumption.
In 2006 a senior member of the financial management team was accused of stealing R25,000 by transferring Library funds into his own account and drawing the interest on it. The matter is still being investigated by the police.
Senior employees are also scathing about the performance of Andrew Malotle. He barely changes his annual marketing reports from year to year: he only changes the dates, they say – and then tell the bizarre story of how a man employed as a driver had to stand in for him at an official function.Andrew Malotle
Dear Pallo
When we met 21 years ago, you were still in exile and I thought that one day you would make a brilliant minister in charge of our arts and culture.
Well, with the evidence before me, I have to say I was wrong. I have to say you have become just another arrogant politician who rewards his cronies with jobs – to the detriment of the people of this country. I’m sorry to say it, but you have been a lousy guardian of our arts and culture.
When I started investigating the decay at the National Library, I was certain that if you knew what was going on you would be shocked into drastic action. But then I began to see that you were part of the problem: it was you, after all, who allowed this precious asset and storehouse of our country’s intellectual and literary heritage to operate without a board for eight months; it was you who then appointed a totally discredited and dishonest man as chairman of that board...
And, as my investigation progressed, I discovered that you had learned about the gross mismanagement of the National Library in July – but have yet to do anything about it. What exactly are you waiting for?
I wouldn’t be surprised if, like the men who have mismanaged this precious resource, you round on the whistleblowers as “racists”. But I have news for you, my dear comrade. The people who came to me and asked me to investigate the National Library were not “old-order whites”. It’s time for you and your party to wake up to the fact that there is no “racial” slant as to who is concerned about our heritage, and good governance.
I hope you can still fix things at the National Library. I have spent hundreds of stimulating hours at the two libraries, tracking down stories of our people and our history for my books. I know how precious these spaces are.
By the way, when I approached you and your office for comment on the allegations I report on in these pages, the apparatchik who poses as the “spokesperson of the Ministry of Arts and Culture”, Sandile Memela, refused my request. Instead of giving you a chance to comment on the situation, Memela sent me a confused lecture on my journalistic ethics and capabilities.
The man was clearly incapable of understanding that the allegations of National Library staff that I had forwarded to your office were not my own report on the matter, and declared: “It is blatantly obvious that this is a one-sided story with preconceived ideas. As a result, we distance the Ministry of Arts & Culture from anything to do with the said story until we are convinced that you have engaged in an exhaustive investigation, site visit and one-on-one interviews with some of the people who will be adversely damaged by the allegations you raise in your story.”
Memela concluded that the quotes from library staffers that I had forwarded, “makes us wonder about what has happened to the quality of journalism in the country. There are, always, two sides of the story. Until you demonstrate that you have done your homework to get the ‘failed National Library’ side, it will be difficult for us to help. Thus the office of the Minister of Arts & Culture will not have nothing (sic) to do with scurrilous poorly researched journalism”.
In other words, a civil servant refuses to do the job he’s paid for because he doesn’t accept the questions asked.
I then had a telephone conversation with Mr Memela, during which I asked him whether he had consulted you on the matter, or if you were aware of his response to my request for your official comment on these very serious allegations. All he could do was tirelessly repeat that he wrote to me in his “official capacity”, and declare that he couldn’t understand that I didn’t know what that meant.
Fire the fool, Pallo. This is banana republic bullshit.
Better; why don’t you do the honourable thing and fire yourself. It’s time to ride into the sunset with that other great intellectual who appointed you.
Yours sincerely
Max du Preez
A fish rots from the head
Senior managers at the National Library have strongly denied every allegation by a whole range of people about the leadership and management of the institution.The National Librarian, John Tsebe, was recovering from hospital treatment when noseweek approached him, so the head of marketing, Andrew Malotle, spoke on his behalf: “Since Mr John Tsebe joined the National Library of South Africa, much has been achieved, including realisation of the dream to build the new National Library.
Minister of Arts & Culture, Pallo Jordan
“Mr Tsebe focused on strategic plan and diversity management workshops in order to turn the staff into a unified force. Staff of the old dispensation who resisted change became disgruntled and started trying to destroy the National Library with malicious statements to the media.”
Malotle’s reaction to criticism that Tsebe regards himself as above operational issues? “Indeed, there is a strong executive management team responsible for operational issues in their own respective divisions.”
Regarding accusations that instead of writing new annual reports each year all he does is change the date on the old one, Malotle says: “Not true, although the Library units do not change their key performance areas, activities change from time to time and the contents of the Annual Report therefore changes accordingly.”
The chief financial officer, Khehla Moloi, responded to allegations of mismanagement thus: “The financial management and control of the Library are in a sound position wherein monthly expenditure is controlled against the budget per each division. The surplus for 2006/2007 amounted to R4.6m with committed funds amounting to R2.8m, leaving us with a sound liquidity of around R1.8m. There has not been any cent which the AG found unaccounted for. The AG could not express an opinion on balance sheet items which they audited in the previous year and gave a thumbs up but lost documentation to that effect to verify their carried out audit the next year.”
On the allegations that there was no proper financial forecast and comprehensive budget for 2007/2008 budget: “There is a fully-fledged comprehensive budget which managers use to allow them to operate on daily basis. Managers obtain their financial reports monthly or anytime they want them.”
Concerning management collapse and allegations that management meetings are not held regularly: “Management meet regularly, not even monthly as is the norm, to discuss and plan operational and strategic issues.”
Track-record of disgrace
When will South Africans learn not to appoint people who have already blotted their copy books?
The current chairperson of the board of the National Library, Professor Moses Gessler Muxe Nkondo, is the disgraced former vice-chancellor of Venda University. As far back as 2000, six years before he was appointed to the Library board, the Heath Special Investigating Unit found that Nkondo, without permission, had a credit card issued to him in the university’s name – and then spent some R200,000 on it. Some of the transactions were cash withdrawals.
In 2000, an investigative reporter at the Dispatch, Eddie Botha, revealed that Nkondo was lying when he made a sworn statement on 1 September 1993 that he had graduated with a PhD in English and literature at Yale in 1979. The thesis for his doctorate was “Nature, God, Man”. Botha quotes Yale spokesperson Tomas Appelquist as declaring: “Moses Gessler Nkondo was awarded the PhD following acceptance of his dissertation. The PhD was withdrawn by formal action of the Yale Corporation in 1990, with Mr Nkondo’s acquiescence.”
DA throws the book at the minister
The official opposition’s representative on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture, Desiree van der Walt, says the department has failed dismally to look after and preserve the country’s national assets.
“The minister keeps ducking his responsibilities with regard to the management of various entities under his jurisdiction, including the National Library of South Africa.
“It is high time Minister Pallo Jordan replaced his personal political appointees with qualified people who can look after all these important entities belonging to all the people of South Africa, and of which he is only a temporary custodian.”
Source - Noseweek
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