I wish to respond to the June 2006 article by Jeremy Davies about myself and NMBT.
I wish to state the facts as follows:
When I took over the Chairmanship, NMBT had a deficit of almost R1m – staff underpaid, some staff members such as Stanford Slabbert had a 100% medical aid subsidy and a 100% subsidy for the Camry he was using. In addition the fuel, tyres, service and licence renewals were paid for by the organisation 100%. The white Camry he was and still is using was sponsored to the organisation not to Stanford Slabbert as an individual. I must mention that this car was SOLELY used by Standford and his family whilst the organisation was paying all the bills.
Surely Mr Davies this was not correct. I am interested to hear your views.
This did not stop there. Standford had a loan of R20 000 given to him by the board at the time before I came in. The loan was granted to pay for his medical costs for the amputation of his second leg. The board members who were coming in from the hospitality industry undertook to pay this loan by giving away some rooms in lieu of this loan account. He never paid a cent or serviced the loan whilst the other staff members were servicing their loan accounts. This was picked up by auditors two years after the loan was granted. The board meeting held at the Boardwalk Casino resolved that the money be recouped from Stanford Slabbert and this made Mr Tshiwula unpopular with Standford. Ultimately Tshiwula deducted the money back into the organisation’s funds.
I must clearly state that there was no board resolution to that effect.
The former CEO, long before Tshiwula came on board, was being paid a commission for being a consultant to NMBT whilst he was in the employ of the organisation. Even after he left we still paid a commission to consult on Splash, though there was never any evidence of that consultancy. We stopped that.
Some members including Stanford Slabbert were being paid an acting allowance for more than three years despite the fact that we had an acting CEO which was paid an acting allowance too. We also stopped that.
Vodacom was sponsoring the Splash a mere amount of R80 000 and lot of promotional items from Vodacom, whilst the municipality was paying almost R2m but was not getting exposure equal to the value of their contribution, instead Vodacom was getting all the mileage with minimum contribution they were making. This took place because some staff members including Stanford Slabbert were getting almost R20 000 airtime from the cellphone company. I am sure Jeremy as a Councillor you should have been concerned about this discrepancy and unequal benefit derived from this by the municipality you purport to represent.
You received annual reports and you chose to selectively use the info contained in it. The facts are that there was growth in the local tourism during my and Tshiwula’s era. Please go and read the annual reports.
I hate to mention that we never disclosed the sensitive facts about the dismissal of your fellow councilor at NMBT. Because we protected him as family man and as a human who needed to pursue his career, we chose to keep mum as to why he left NMBT. Perhaps you can ask me to give you the privilege of the info. It is a very damaging information of which we wish to keep our integrity and not publicly destroy your colleague who is now a public figure. At least you should thank us for acting with integrity.
So Mr Davies please don’t mislead the public.
NMBT received qualified audits but, during my Chairmanship and Tshiwula’s first year, we received an unqualified audit until 2010. Surely as public representative you should be giving accolades for the work done. It is very disappointing to hear a person of your caliber misleading the public of Port Elizabeth by providing baseless unverified facts.
I wish to invite you to a public debate about these facts.
Nceba Moss
Editors Notes: The above letter was prompted by a post in the MyPE Forum on 9 June 2006 – “Letter to the editor from Cllr Jeremy Davis re. NMBT.” As the forum is no longer active the letter and thread is reproduced below:
Initial post:
The ramblings of Nceba Moss in the Herald, 2nd June, gave us one great piece of information. He is going to stand down. This is long overdue, as it is the combination of Moss, and NMBT CEO Fezekile Tshiwula, who have taken NMBT from being one of the top destination marketing agencies in SA, to being the laughing stock of the industry. All this was acheived in just one year. Is this a good example of transformation?
Moss was appointed by former Mayor Faku, who was his neighbour. He had no tourism experience and still has very little idea as to how the industry operates. Then along came Tshiwula, another person with zero tourism experience. Together they have destroyed what used to be a dynamic, innovative and energetic marketing agency, driven by people with passion.
The new budget of R10million reflects that 67% will be spent on salaries and rent. A mere 25% will be spent on marketing. As history relates, Shaun van Eck and his team had a budget of R2.3million, which was used very innovatively to succeed in the tourist market.
The powers that be must take a hard look at the output being generated by Tshiwula and his team. Incidentally, how much did Tshiwula’s seven overseas trips last year cost us, and what were the benefits for NMB?
It’s time that marketing people took over NMBT and only then will tourism thrive as a business.
Cllr Jeremy Davis.
DA
Caro replied:
I am long past being surprised by nepotism in our Government… or by totally unqualified people being given posts. But this…
“The new budget of R10million reflects that 67% will be spent on salaries and rent. A mere 25% will be spent on marketing.”
…is a bit startling, hmm?? Who is accountable for this, and to whom?
portelizabethan said:
Can anyone tell me who gets the commission when people book accommodation via NMBT?
They are surely not doing this service for nothing.
If they are doing this service for nothing then I suggest that they lose the grant that they are currently receiving from the municipality and turn themselves into a private sector booking / travel agent and take commissions for accommodation, tours, flights etc.
I am sure that the skills that must have been built up over the years within NMBT would well qualify the employees to promote, run and manage large events that will be to the benefit of Port Elizabeth AND financially viable to NMBT or whatever their private sector name will be.
If the employees are not willing to take on the challenge then put the whole organisation out to tender.
DO NOT employ consultants – that is so demeaning to the objectives of our society …………..
Because it sure seems like the two camps have an uneasy alliance.
motherwellman said:
After reading todays article in the Herald by Cllr J. Davies, I cannot believe that some one can be so naive. He is totally consumed by prejudice as is evident by his futile efforts to mislead the public. We are fully aware of the achievements being made by NMBT and we believe that Port Elizabeth Tourism has, and will continue to grow under the present leadership. This of course includes Mr. S. van Eck.
Surely no orgnisation can spend 67% of its budget on salaries. Cllrs need to reveal the source of this information regarding these figures which were firmly disputed by NMBT when I called them.
Cllr Davies should inform the public what are his qualifications regards to tourism by providing us, the ratepayers, a copy of his CV as that would be leading by example.
I await his response to this. In the meantime, Long live Mr. Moss. We would not easily forget your substantive contribution to tourism in Port Elizabeth.
What do YOU have to say?
Alan Straton
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Ja, well, no fine. I think that this calls for a public debate and show-n-tell to sort the matter out once and for all. It will also be a good opportunity to expose the multitude of ANC sins that abound in our Metro.
Wow, now that only took about 5 years – well done, Nceba!
He was obviously “applying his mind” to the matter at hand – and as we all know, ANC minds operate at a snails pace – unless they are taking a decision which is to their own benefit…
I suggest you look at this issue from both sides, even the organisation where Mr Slabbert is involved in now, spends more than 70% on salaries …. Investigate!